Ruling Keeps Teacher With AIDS Out of Classroom

An Irvine teacher with AIDS who wants to return to the classroom must remain in his office job, at least temporarily, under a ruling issued Tuesday by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

A three-judge panel denied Vincent Chalk’s request to return immediately to the classroom but granted his motion for an expedited appeal and agreed to hear oral arguments in the case during the week of Nov. 2.

Chalk took his case to the appeals court after U.S. District Judge William P. Gray refused to issue an order permitting him to return to his job teaching deaf children. At the time, Gray said he was unsure of the health risk Chalk might pose to his students. The initial ruling was a victory for Chalk’s employer, the Orange County Department of Education, which wants to keep him out of the classroom. “We are very pleased with the ruling,” said Cate Cameron, a spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles.

Cameron called the ruling favorable, even though Chalk was not reassigned to the classroom because the appeal will be expedited. Chalk’s federal suit was scheduled for trial in January, but Cameron said a November hearing could mean a resolution to the case before the end of the year.

Chalk, 42, was transferred out of his classroom in August after county education officials learned he had AIDS. After 13 years of teaching hearing-impaired students at Venado Junior High School and University High School in Irvine, he was reassigned to a desk job at the county Education Department headquarters.

In August, Chalk filed his suit against the department, alleging officials were violating his civil rights by keeping him out of the classroom.

The suit, supported by the ACLU, was filed under a 1973 federal law that makes it illegal for agencies receiving federal funds to discriminate against employees with handicaps if those employees are “otherwise qualified” for the job.

Several teachers across the United States have been transferred out of the classroom because they have AIDS, or tested positive for the AIDS virus. But Chalk is believed to be the first teacher with AIDS to challenge his reassignment in federal court.