Former university employee files damage suit
By Sean Dunnahoo
Assistant Editor
A black homosexual who was fired March 16 by the university for wearing women's clothing has sued his former employers for $2 million.
According to Jerome Pickel's physician, his dressing in female attire was an important part of his pre-operation therapy.
Pickel was hired as a keypunch operator by the university May 30, 1978. According to the damage suit filed in Superior Court last July 26, Pickel made it clear at the start to his employers that he was a homosexual planning to get a sex-change operation.
The suit said the Pickel's personal convictions had made no difference to either his employers or coworkers at the Data Preparation Center.
Pickel worked there nine months until he was fired March 16, 1979.
Pickel's employer, Catherine Van Orman, manager of the center, sent Pickel a memo March 15 after he had shown up at work for three days wearing women's clothing. Van Orman told him that he would be removed if he showed up for work not wearing men's clothing.
The memo said, " . . you were hired as a keypunch operator on May 30,1978. You have reported to work dressed as a male until Monday of this week. On March 12, 13, 14, 1979, you came to work dressed in female clothing. You are further advised that you will be terminated immediately if
you report to work dressed in female clothing."
A reply to Van Orman from Pickel's urologist, Elmer Belt, stated that Pickel's wearing of female clothing was an integral part of his therapy before undergoing the sex change operation.
But when Pickel returned to work wearing women's clothing, he was fired and a termination report was filed. Pickel's $4.62/hour job was ended with a final payment of $571.52. The reason for termination was given as "Male dressing as female. Refuses to wear male clothing."
"The reason for termination was given as 'Male dressing as female. Refuses to wear male clothing.' "
In addition to the $2 million, Howard J. Stechel, Pickel's lawyer, is asking for an additional $10 million in exemplary and punitive damages. The suit called the extra $10 million "a punishment" against the university so they would not do the same again.
Exemplary and punitive damages are intended to punish and set an example for the university to follow in the future.
Some of the reasons why Pickel feels he has been damaged is that he moved his place of residence closer to the university and grew to rely on his paychecks and fringe benefits associated with being employed by the university.
The suit claims that Pickel's delicate emotional condition was harmed by his
firing because he had been doing his job adequately and therefore did not expect to be relieved of his duties.
It is further claimed that the firing was done with malice although his employers
and fellow employees had made no complaints about his homosexuality or plans for a sex change operation.
trojan
Volume LXXVII, Number 9
University of Southern California
Friday, July 13. 1979
Student accosted in Bovard restroom
A student was held up at gun point in the first floor mens room of Bovard Auditorium, it was learned yesterday. No suspect was apprehended.
As he was turning a comer in the mens room, Jay Westbrook, 21, and a senior majoring in Biology, was approached by a man carrying a gun.
Westbrook later told the Summer Troian that the suspect had put a gun to his head, forced him into one of the stalls and demanded all of his money, a total of $79. Westbrook said the suspect then told him to lock the stall and to remain there for three minutes.
Westbrook then ran from the building to a Campus Security car patrolling the area. Security immediately put out an alert, but by that time the suspect had fled the area.
Officer Clarence Jackson, of the LAPD, told the Trojan that the suspect was believed to be a 21 year old black male, about 5' 9” and weighting around 165 lbs.
Jackson went on to say that the suspect was armed with a 357 6" magnum revolver.
Westbrook attended Pierce College last year where he had been die previous victim of a robbery-
University failing to comply with smog alert regulations
By Joe Boyle
An air pollution official said the university must show a 65% reduction in employee driving during second-stage smog alerts.
"We also hope that the university would try to set up programs so that student driving can be reduced," said Bill Falkner of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
The Summer Trojan learned this information after contacting the agency about several signs which were posted around campus on Wednesday.
The signs pointed out students' inabilities to obtain transferable parking permits from the campus Parking Operations and as a result, students would be unable to carpool. The sign said to call Bill Falkner at the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Companies, however, are still required by the agency to show a 65% reduction in employee driving during the alerts. They can
comply with the requirement by having proof that they are car-pooling, using the commuter computer or some type of in-house program.
It is mandatory that companies with more than 100 employees in the same location submit a driving reduction plan to the agency. There are now 2800 companies on file with the agency. The university is not one of these companies.
"It's not a question of us avoiding the plan but we re in the process of finalizing it," said Carl Levredge, director of campus security and parking operations.
Levredge was aware of the signs around campus and he told us that the transferrable tags were replaced with bumper stickers because many students were not leaving the tags in their cars and this was causing many complications.
The university has three carpool programs for students and staff, Levredge said. Anyone interested should contact the Parking Operations office.
Research at university reveals few teenage birth complications
Research at the university has revealed that teenage mothers may have the fewest birth complications of any age group, given favorable environmental factors such as prenatal care and diet.
This finding contradicts the current teaching in medical schools that very young mothers face more hazards in childbirth because they are too physically immature to withstand the stresses of pregnancy.
The study, to be described in the August issue of the journal of Youth and Adolescence, is part of an extensive three-year research project on the effects of environment on infant health. The project is being funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Brigitte Mednick, assistant professor of educational psychology at the School of Education, heads the research team, which includes Robert L. Baker of the university and Brian Sutton-Smith of the University of Pennsylvania.
The study indicates that environmental factors, such as poor access to prenatal care contribute to the high incidence of pregnancy and birth complications among mothers from 11 to 19 years of age. This finding contradicts the long-held notion that complications are the result of physical insufficiency of very young women.
The researchers used data from 9,000 Danish mothers who gave birth during the period 1959-1961 at a hospital associated with the University of Copenhagen. The records kept on all of the facility's patients are considered among the most comprehensive in the world.
Regular prenatal care was found to have been the most significant factor in the healthy births of Danish teenage mothers. In contrast, many teenagers (both Danish and American) receive no prenatal care at all and thus are at risk of pregnancy and birth complications.
The researchers also observed what they have termed the "grandmother effect." An infant raised by both a teenage mother and her mother is likely to be significantly healthier at one year of age than an infant raised by a teenager alone.
A comparable effect was also observed in infants whose mothers had given birth after the age of 30.
William Brock, staff research associate of the project, recently presented a paper to the Western Psychological Association's annual meeting in San Diego. He reported that teenage mothers who live with their mothers are more likely to be employed, thus supporting the inference that the grandmother is actively involved in day-to-day caring for the child.
The grandmother adds to the infant's environment a mixture of child-care experience, coupled with considerable love and positive parenting motivation, Brock said.
However, the research team at the university stresses that this doesn't mean every teenage mother should move in with her own mother, nor should a mother necessarily be encouraged to wait until after the age of 30 to start bearing children.
The data suggests, however, that once survival of the infant is assured, environmental and social variables emerge as critical to the continued physical growth and development of the child.
Monkey Business — These Troian Sports Club members may have been caught just hangin around , but most ot the day they re involved in a highly organized recreational program. See story page 4, ST iihoto by Sharon Wong