College Bans Man With Service Parrot
Jim Eggers looks like any other Maplewood resident who sometimes travels with a backpack, but there aren’t snacks or books in the pack.
Instead, there’s a big, gray parrot in the pack, inside its cage. The parrot is Egger’s service animal and he’s got the registration papers to prove it.
Eggers, 33, is bipolar and suffers mood swings and bursts of anger. He’s trained Sadie, his parrot, to help him through those difficult times. In addition, Sadie allows Eggers to interact more naturally with strangers, something that has proved difficult for him.
Sadie goes with Eggers just about everywhere including MetroLink, restaurants, the St. Louis Galleria and on buses. But Sadie doesn’t go with him to the St. Louis Community College Forest Park campus.
Eggers had been getting his teeth cleaned at the campus clinic for years. Recently, he decided to bring Sadie with him. He considers her his service animal, as does his physician and the Missouri Department of Agriculture.
When he tried to bring Sadie on campus, he was told he couldn’t and that’s when the feud started. Eggers has met with college officials and they are adamant: Sadie is not welcome.
School officials say Sadie isn’t a service animal, but a therapy animal and under the law she’s not allowed on the campus. Eggers has been trying to get the college to change but it won’t.
Now, he’s enlisted the aid of the U.S. Department of Education. The agency is investigating the complaints but has yet to make a decision.
College spokeswoman Claudia Perry acknowledged that there are several people on campus who have a fear of birds.
Perry said the college makes accommodations for the disabled but even seeing eye dogs are not allowed in the clinic. Perry said the dogs are kept in a waiting area while the patients see hygienists.
That might be a violation of the law according to those familiar with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Perry agrees that Eggers has tried to have meetings on campus, but they’ve all been canceled because Sadie was also going to attend.
At his most recent session, without Sadie, Eggers said he became agitated and was asked to leave the campus.
That wasn’t his first outburst.
Two years ago, he was charged with harassment by St. Louis police after he made a telephone threat to Archbishop Raymond Burke. Eggers said the threat was him acting out his illness and he regrets it.
Eggers has not been back to campus since the meeting he was asked to leave, but still hopes to resolve the issue.
Meanwhile he and Sadie have the run of the community, just not St. Louis Community College at Forest Park.