I am a mental health professional living with a disability in a Southern California Life Plan Retirement Community. When I blew the whistle on discrimination and elder abuse, the CEO used her knowledge of my disability to attack me. I found myself in a California Civil Rights Department mediation meeting being coerced into choosing between my civil right to have an assistance animal and my 1st amendment right to free speech.
If you want an accommodation for your disability to have your assistance dog allowed in common areas, it will be contingent upon you agreeing to not speak, or cause anyone to speak on your behalf, regarding the discrimination you have been subjected to, you will withdraw all reports of such discrimination, as well as elder abuse you have suffered and/or witnessed another being subjected to.
Your blog is fantastic. People in Florida – and everywhere else – need to know about this!
Thank you, Trish, for taking the time to comment and for your supportive comment. Yes this is such an important issue for the elderly and their families, as well as anyone who has had their civil rights violated.
I can’t believe they were able to require you to do this in mediation. What if you refused? You can’t refuse a service dog, pretty much anywhere, especially in California. This is absurd. They can’t bargain with people’s civil rights so that they don’t talk about something. They are supposed to give you those rights no matter what…..how awful.
Thank you Angela for your comment. Yes it seemed strange that they pushed this all the way to mediation AND then tried to condition their compliance with housing rights upon my “voluntarily agreeing” to give up my free speech rights. What was stranger was that the mediator and 3rd year law student thought this was ok! As a senior citizen I knew this was wrong and did not sign. I will be writing about this in detail in future blog posts.