Bipolar Today

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The superintendent of the Peru school board in New York State recently departed from his job because he was bipolar. Dr. Thomas Stapleford, who was appointed superintendent in June of this year left his job by mutual agreement because of his bipolar disorder. In late August, he had a manic episode and was hospitalized for the first time in his life. Afterwards, there were rumors about his sudden departure, and the board “lost confidence in [him]“. The board and Dr. Stapleford came to an agreement in which Dr. Stapleford received a month’s severance. Full coverage of the story can be found in the this article from the Press Republican.

Commentary

I don’t know exactly what happened here, but it doesn’t sound like Dr. Stapleford wanted to leave. If (and I emphasize the “if” here) he was pushed out simply for being bipolar, this is discrimination. While is true that he missed some work when he was hospitalized for the first time in his life, he was having some trouble with his memory, and that there were some issues with his behavior (“There were pieces of my behavior, all I can say is they were not a hundred percent”), this may not sufficient to fire someone because of a mental illness. People wouldn’t be pushed out because they missed work for chemotherapy, and it doesn’t matter what kind of hospital he went to. As for a weak memory, this is something that can be easily accommodated in most circumstances.

As for behavior, the comment is unspecific. Depending on what the issues were, they could warrant having someone leave a position or not. If, however, he was pushed out just for being weird, that would be discrimination. There is no real difference between someone with pressed speech and someone vomiting, except that the former is “scary” to people who lump all mental illness together. However, no one is being specific about the behavior in question, so there is no way to know how serious it was.

Everything was handled through an attorney, so we may never know.

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