Deaf professor wins suit over firing
Posted: May 28, 2011
By LOGAN G. CARVER
Morris News Service
A Lubbock County jury has decided Texas Tech University should pay a former
professor more than $500,000 for discriminating against him because he is
deaf.
Michael L. Collier, a deaf, tenure-track assistant professor hired to teach
American Sign Language and other courses relating to deaf culture, was
abruptly dismissed in October 2006.
The jury found Collier’s disability was directly related to his termination.
Collier and his legal team beamed after the verdict.
“We wanted to show Tech it’s wrong to bully a disabled person,” said Bob
Schmidt, one of Collier’s attorneys.
He said the damages and pay the jury awarded Collier made it clear it is not
OK for the university to treat disabled professors like second-class
citizens.
“This is their way of showing them it’s not right,” Schmidt said.
The jury found that Collier’s disability was a motivating factor in Tech’s
decision not to reappoint him and that Tech would not have made that
decision in the absence of his disability.
They awarded Collier $47,651 in back pay, $100,000 in front pay and $400,000
in past compensatory damages.
“We’re disappointed and surprised by the verdict,” said Tech spokesman Chris
Cook. “We didn’t think the facts merited a decision against Tech.”
Cook said Tech encourages diversity in faculty, staff and student
populations and that the university does not discriminate.
Schmidt said ostensible diversity doesn’t preclude discrimination.
“It’s one thing to hire a deaf person and think ‘this is going to be a
feather in our cap – a deaf faculty member,'” Schmidt said. “But then it’s a
totally different experience to sit down and work with that person and
accept them for who they are when they have differences.”
Collier sued Tech in 2008, accusing the university of discriminating against
him because of his disability.
The case centered primarily on the way Collier was treated by his supervisor
and how he was fired.
Frederick Suppe, chairman of the language department, never met with Collier
face-to-face, nor expressed any displeasure with his performance until he
informed Collier he would not be reappointed.
This does not comply with university policy.
University policy states that Tech will follow a “progressive disciplinary
action program for employees, which begins with an “informal talk,” and
includes disciplinary counseling, letters of unsatisfactory work performance
and suspension with or without pay.”
Policy also mandates: “Supervisors should review with employees with
disabilities whether additional reasonable accommodations would resolve work
performance deficiencies prior to taking aggressive disciplinary actions.”
Suppe informed Collier that his contract would not be renewed halfway
through his second semester with no prior counseling, discussion or
opportunity for corrective action.
Suppe wouldn’t give Collier an explanation as to why he was being dismissed.
“They basically fired him out of the blue – a sucker punch,” Schmidt said.
“They wouldn’t meet with him, wouldn’t talk with him; (they) put him under
the supervision of lower-ranked people and treated him like a second-class
citizen.”
Cook declined to discuss Tech’s appeal options.
Source:
http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2011-05-28/deaf-professor-wins-suit-over-firing