Posted on 05/12/2009 4:38:57 PM PDT by neverdem
Alf Clayfield, a custodian with the Kitchener-Waterloo school board poses at his Waterloo, Ont., home on April 24, 2009. Photograph by: Aaron Lynett, National Post A labour arbitrator has reversed the firing of a veteran elementary-school janitor who sucker punched his boss, ruling that an experimental arthritis drug the man was taking as part of a clinical trial helped trigger the angry outburst.
It may be the first time in a Canadian legal hearing that pharmaceutical adverse effects have been successfully invoked to justify violent behaviour.
The custodian, Alf Clayfield, had put in 22 years of generally exemplary service with an Ontario school board before the October incident with his manager.
He acted out of character partly because of the medicine's neurological side effects, the arbitrator said in replacing the dismissal with a three-month suspension.
Mr. Clayfield said the problems he attributes to the drug began with insomnia, headaches
and dizziness. "I found that things that never bothered me before would irritate me very quickly," the Kitchener-Waterloo public school board employee said in an interview.
"I seemed very agitated. Later in the study ... I just found that I was angry all the time. I couldn't stand being around people. I couldn't stand talking to people."
After he stopped taking the drug, the symptoms gradually subsided, he said.
The trial that he was part of ended badly for the U. S. manufacturer of the steroid-based drug, too.
CombinatoRx of Cambridge, Mass., laid off 50 of its 160 employees after the study suggested its most promising product, called...
--snip--
In other countries, defendants have cited the effects of SSRI antidepressants and the malaria drug mefloquine as the trigger for some horrible acts of violence, including the killing by a Wyoming man of his wife, daughter and granddaughter.
(Excerpt) Read more at canada.com ...
I’ve worked in the family business my whole life, dodged a few thrown wrenches in my time after a big screw-up but it never came to punches.
He sucker punched him and then got a good lawyer, he should be fired simply because he can’t be trusted again.
Can’t Canuckistan recall Mark Steyn and let him rule?
Where can I get some of that medication?
LOL. That’s what I was thinking.
after having quite a turn after taking Prednisone (although I didn’t hit anybody), I would say medication is more reasonable than a Twinkie.
“Where can I get some of that medication?”
-
Me too, I need me some of that!
Shoo, me too!
The devil is in the details. Some people suffer from unexpected mental illnesses through no fault of their own that can be successfully treated. If the enterprise wants to show the person mercy that is their own responsibility and risk and potential benefit.
I don’t think any of you buffoons would actually want it, if the effects are as stated. It would not be a pleasant experience to find oneself in an irrepressible rage. Imagine what could happen to those you loved, let alone yourself.
First, I am not a buffoon.
Second, I am in a rage daily due to an idiotic boss who is promoted due to gov’t service seniority (there goes your precious tax dollars). I guess I have a lot of self control.
Third, I guess you need to have it explained to you that this is just a bunch of people venting. Quite healthy in my opinion.
I suggest you get a sense of humor.
It sounds like the diagnosis is adverse drug reaction. The treatment is to discontinue the drug. I found the story by looking for SSRI in Yahoo News.
IMHO, the Army sergeant in Iraq that killed five soldiers may have been given SSRIs.
The Drive By Media is selling the story of repeated tours in Iraq. I'm not buying that.
Dude, you’re harshing my mellow.
I just want a legitimate excuse to punch my boss.
You don’t know what rage is....
SSRIs are not steroid based as was the test drug described in the lead article. Sounds like your good old fashioned roid rage.
Wrong kind of steroid. Roid rage is from anabolic steroids.
Good point !
Lots of my troops had to be dressed down for abusing such.
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