Teacher With AIDS Given $35,000 to Settle Lawsuit

AIDS patient Vincent Chalk, having beaten a system that once barred him from his Irvine classroom, has some advice for others who believe that they have been subjected to discrimination because of the disease.

“Fight for your rights--that’s what I try to teach my students,” said the 43-year-old teacher of hearing-impaired children.

Chalk announced Thursday that he has accepted $35,000 from the Orange County Department of Education in an out-of-court settlement of a lawsuit over his transfer to a non-teaching job last August.

In November, a federal appellate court ruled that the transfer, by Orange County schools Supt. Robert Peterson, was a violation of Chalk’s rights because AIDS cannot be transmitted through casual contact.

In the settlement announced Thursday, both sides agreed not to appeal a judge’s order that the department pay $167,500 in fees to Chalk’s lawyers.

Lawyers for the two sides clashed over the significance of the settlement.

Paul Hoffman, head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said employers now have been warned that if they discriminate against AIDS sufferers, they face not just the type of court order that returned Chalk to his classroom but “substantial damages” as well.

“It’s exactly the kind of message that employers need to hear,” Hoffman declared.

In contrast, Education Department lawyer Eugene McMenamin said the deal was simply a cheap way out of a complex lawsuit that promised to drag on for years.

“We’re dealing with taxpayers’ money here,” McMenamin said. “Litigation of this case through a conclusion would cost the taxpayers a lot more than this settlement did.”

McMenamin pointed out that the department had gone to court seeking legal guidance on how to treat Chalk and paid his full salary throughout the litigation. The department, he contended, acted out of a “good-faith” concern for student safety.

A resident of Long Beach, Chalk had been teaching at Venado Middle School and University High School in Irvine when he was taken out of the classroom and given a job writing grant proposals.

At a press conference in Los Angeles, Chalk said Thursday that he was relieved to see an end to the lawsuit.

“I’m real happy to have the case over with and to be in the classroom in a secure position with my children,” Chalk said.

He called the lawsuit “a beginning.”

“It shows that people with AIDS are capable of continuing in their jobs as long as they are physically capable,” he said. “They are no threat.”

The Department of Education had sought to justify Chalk’s transfer to non-teaching duties by citing concern over student health, disruption in the district and the need to avoid lawsuits.

In a strong opinion last fall, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blasted the department’s “irrational fear” of AIDS. Saying that medical evidence shows AIDS cannot be transmitted through casual contact, the court condemned the Education Department’s concerns about the “ignorance” of others.

For the lawyers, the key legal question that had not been answered was whether Chalk was entitled to damages for emotional distress. Federal courts in different areas of the country have disagreed over whether such damages can be awarded for violation of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which Chalk used as a basis for his claims.

Because the lawsuit ended in a settlement, there will be no court ruling on the question in Chalk’s case, Marjorie Rushforth, Chalk’s lawyer, acknowledged. But she added that the fact that Chalk is receiving money from the Education Department will convey a practical message.

“It may not have precedential value, but it will have pragmatic value,” she said. “The message will not be lost.”

McMenamin disagreed. The settlement was “a lump sum” that was “not denominated . . . for emotional distress,” McMenamin contended. He said that Chalk was entitled to no damages because the Department of Education continued to pay his salary throughout the dispute.