ADA lawsuit claims neglect

A legally blind student has filed a lawsuit against the college after he fell and broke his leg stepping off a curb that was too high to meet ADA standards.

A former college grounds supervisor said campus officials knew the curb was dangerous and ignored the problem.

Albert Jordan Arguilla, 20, an art major who is a legally blind, filed a complaint for civil rights violations and personal injury damages after he broke his femur falling from a curb near the 750 building on an access road.

Arguilla said he had left his class in room 755 and was walking toward the bookstore on a pedestrian access route when he fell from a curb that ranges in height from 6 inches at its lowest up to 12 inches at the corner. There were no warnings about the curb anomalies, according to the suit, other than yellow paint on the edge of the curb that a legally blind person cannot see.

Arguilla’s suit against the college claims the pedestrian access route is unsafe and not really accessible. SWC Director of Facilities Charlotte Zolezzi agreed.

Zolezzi said she was told by a superior to paint the curb after Arguilla’s fall, but nothing else.

“At the time I didn’t know that someone had been hurt or really what the problem was,” she said. “I was just told to paint the curb. I think there was yellow paint and then we wrapped and continued down because there is a driveway and it is really not a walkway.”

When Zolezzi learned what had happened she said she returned to re-evaluate the site.

“I didn’t think of someone who was blind, I was thinking wheelchair and didn’t know the extent of the injuries,” she said. “Afterward I understood that someone had been hurt and I was taken over there to inspect. Man, this curb is kinda high. This can’t be in the path of travel. Construction did not have correct ADA.”

Former Grounds Supervisor Jose Aguilera was critical of Zolezzi and other college leaders for ignoring a long-standard problem.

“This is not the first incident,” he said. “This is, unfortunately, a situation where you are dealing with a disabled student who is blind and it is sad that it had to happen to him, but there are other students that have tripped there. Faculty and all kinds of people have complained about these dangerous areas on campus.”

Aguilera said he bought a small concrete grinder at Home Depot to fix some unsafe sidewalks and curbs, but it was not powerful enough to reshape the curb near room 755. Aguilera said he and his team did not have the proper equipment for the job.

Aguilera said he was trying to fix many of the hazard areas on campus, but Zolezzi told him not to.

“Zolezzi said no, don’t worry about it, it is not a big issue, it is not a concern right now to worry about,” he said. “All the other deans and directors know about this because we’ve discussed it in meetings.”

Zolezzi said her hands were tied and her department lacked resources to fix unsafe areas of campus. She said the college hired an ADA consultant to evaluate problems and assemble an ADA compliance binder. It was given to the Proposition R team, she said, but the team was not fixing anything, so she had to take over the project herself.

“We started fixing things with the budget that we had in our department when we saw how behind the Prop R team was,” she said. “I was given this spreadsheet that was half done. I asked why didn’t anybody implement any of this? No one had a real answer. The money was there, it has been there.”

Zolezzi said she is still trying to get through the binder, though progress was stalled when she was placed on administrative leave over an unrelated personnel matter.

“I never got through the binder and this was in January, but I don’t know if the curb was added,” she said.

Zolezzi also said her department was understaffed.

“I didn’t have any project managers, I didn’t have any supervisors to help me get started in some of the other projects so most of it we relied on the Prop R team to do a lot of these incidental projects,” she said.

Arguilla said through his lawyer that the college needs to stop making excuses and start providing equal access to students and staff with disabilities. He said he had no chance of safely navigating the high curb. It did not have an ADA regulation slope, lacked warnings and did not have handrails. These are all in violation of statutory measures, according to his court filing.

Patricia Flores-Charter, SWC Director of Disability Support Services, said she was concerned about the construction on campus and a lack of signage.

Zolezzi said she agreed.

“I took on that responsibility as the consulting contractor to make sure we help students re-route their pathway during construction,” she said. “I offered to put a fence, a wall and the Prop R team kept saying it was not necessary because we are going to remodel.”

Arguilla’s legal brief argued that disabled students are vulnerable during construction projects and cannot wait for safety measures. Arguilla said he could not see the curb line and has “problems with depth perception.” His fracture required surgery and hospitalization, he said, and could have been life threatening. He said he suffers from anxiety and depression over the incident, but is back on campus resuming his studies.

Zolezzi said she regrets that a student with disabilities was injured, but she said it could have been anyone.

“I feel bad that someone — especially someone who is visually impaired — had to face this,” she said. “Students are looking at their phones when switching from class to class. Anybody could’ve fallen.”

Aguilera said Zolezzi and college administrators are far too cavalier about campus hazards and he expects more injuries.

“It is unfortunate that it happened to a student, but I’m glad that somebody brought this to light because Zolezzi is completely responsible for addressing these issues and these concerns,” he said. “Especially because the biggest thing is that they wiped it and put it under the rug. They don’t care about it, they just squashed it.”