Chicago Board of Education v. Industrial Commission

523 N.E.2d 912, 169 Ill. App. 3d 459, 120 Ill. Dec. 1, 1988 Ill. App. LEXIS 267
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 9, 1988
DocketNo. 1-86-2272WC
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 523 N.E.2d 912 (Chicago Board of Education v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chicago Board of Education v. Industrial Commission, 523 N.E.2d 912, 169 Ill. App. 3d 459, 120 Ill. Dec. 1, 1988 Ill. App. LEXIS 267 (Ill. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

JUSTICE McCULLOUGH

delivered the opinion of the court:

Claimant, an elementary school teacher, filed two applications for adjustment of claim under the Workers’ Compensation Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 48, par. 138.1 et seq.) for separate incidents occurring on January 5, 1976, and January 5, 1978. During the course of the compensation proceedings claimant was allowed to amend his applications to seek compensation under the Occupational Diseases Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 48, par. 172.36 et seq.). The arbitrator awarded claimant $251.09 for 2106/7 weeks of disability under section 19(b) of the Occupational Diseases Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 48, par. 172.54(b)). Claimant was also awarded medical benefits and respondent was ordered to provide rehabilitation services. On review, the Industrial Commission (Commission) affirmed the arbitrator, but vacated the rehabilitation award and remanded to the arbitrator for proceedings on the issue of permanent disability. On certiorari, the circuit court confirmed the Commission order. Respondent filed a timely notice of appeal. On appeal, the issue is whether claimant established he was exposed to or suffered from a compensable occupational disease.

Claimant, a 56-year-old school teacher, was employed by respondent from June 1967 to June 1978 and was assigned exclusively to the Hefferen Elementary School, where he taught a variety of subjects. In September 1978, instead of returning to his teaching duties after the summer recess, claimant sought treatment at the Portage-Cragin Mental Health Center, where he was counseled on a weekly basis by Deborah Gessner, a psychiatric social worker. Claimant took a 25-month leave of absence from the Chicago Board of Education (Board) and except for tutoring a blind student and selling hot dogs for a short time was not gainfully employed during that period. He applied for reinstatement to his teaching position in January 1981 but was rejected because he failed a psychiatric evaluation conducted by respondent’s psychiatrist.

At the hearing before the arbitrator, Deborah Gessner testified she counseled claimant for a “great psychological debilitation” which she stated was caused by the gradual deterioration of claimant’s work environment, chaos in the classroom, lack of support from the administration, physical assault by students, inability to comply with school regulations, unmanageable students, inability to control the classroom, and physical isolation in a mobile classroom detached from the main school facility. Gessner testified claimant’s condition was a reactive depression characterized by feelings of hopelessness, failure and inadequacy emanating from claimant’s work environment.

On cross-examination, Gessner discounted claimant’s childhood experiences and the fact he had been hospitalized for psychiatric care while in the Army in 1944 as factors in claimant’s present condition of ill-being. Gessner also believed claimant had a stable marital and family relationship with his wife and children which was not a source of claimant’s depression.

Claimant testified before the arbitrator he graduated from high school in 1940 and worked until he was drafted into the Army in 1943. He was discharged from his noncombat position 18 months later after hospitalization for a psychiatric disorder. He subsequently attended several universities and worked principally as an insurance salesman, first for New York Life Insurance Company from 1953 to 1960, and from 1960 to 1967 as a self-employed insurance broker. He worked for respondent as a substitute teacher during the 1960’s and became a full-time substitute in 1967.

Petitioner testified extensively concerning incidents of stress, assaults, and injuries he received in the course of his teaching duties. On March 4, 1974, while unloading teaching materials from his car, which he was forced to remove from a mobile classroom each evening because of vandalism, claimant was struck on his right shoulder by a piece of concrete.

On March 18, 1974, while performing the same task, he was robbed at knife point by three men. While cooperating with police in the investigation of this crime, he received an anonymous phone call directing him to drop the investigation.

On April 3, 1974, a female student engaged in a fight with another student, kicked and scratched him when he attempted to intervene.

On May 9, 1974, he was kicked and bitten by a student who was engaged in a fistfight.

On the last day of school in 1973 claimant was chased from the school yard by 12 to 15 students and was struck in the back with a rock.

In the fall of 1973, claimant slightly injured his leg when he stumbled out of the doorway of the mobile classroom when the steps leading to the unit had been moved away from the building.

On January 5, 1976, while in the main school building, after school hours, claimant saw a boy lying on the floor and went to his aid. Claimant testified the child was faking injury and pushed claimant, causing him to fall and injure his back.

On January 5, 1978, a violent fight broke out between two boys in the classroom. While intervening, one child grabbed claimant’s arm and struck it on a table. His right elbow was injured requiring medical attention, including a brace and sling. Claimant is still treated for the injury to his elbow and his back, which he reinjured on October 25, 1977, while moving books at the direction of the principal.

Claimant also testified to a variety of working conditions which exacerbated his problems. In 1976 the school board made a change in the duties of teachers requiring more paperwork. Claimant maintained he spent two to four hours each night keeping up with the additional reports he was required to prepare. He had continuous difficulty keeping discipline in the classroom because of the nature of the students being taught, and although unruly children were sent to the principal’s office, they were often returned to the classroom without being disciplined or counseled. Claimant maintained this was a violation of the union contract.

Claimant was also a member of the teacher professional and problem committee, a group of faculty members who submitted problems to the principal. Claimant testified the principal did not resolve faculty complaints about increased paperwork and discipline.

Claimant also maintained the principal was abusive to him, citing a September 1976 incident when the principal yelled at him and cursed him for being late and leaving his class unattended for several minutes while the class went to recess. This incident occurred on the playground in full view of the entire school and claimant stated he felt humiliated.

In May 1978, claimant testified a female student was brought to his classroom and placed there for the remainder of the school year. The student had just broken the leg of another teacher by striking her with a chair. Although claimant objected to the inclusion of the student in his class, he was told there was nothing he could do about it. The child was violent and refused to do any work for the remainder of the school year.

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Bluebook (online)
523 N.E.2d 912, 169 Ill. App. 3d 459, 120 Ill. Dec. 1, 1988 Ill. App. LEXIS 267, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chicago-board-of-education-v-industrial-commission-illappct-1988.