West LA College ordered to provide transportation for disabled students by next week, but will they comply?

The West Los Angeles College website boasts that the Culver City campus is located on 70 acres overlooking Marina Del Rey and Greater West Los Angeles, with views of the Pacific Ocean on a clear day.

But the topography’s visual blessing is a curse for students who have limited mobility.

“It’s painful to get around,” said Charles Guerra, a 71-year-old Army veteran who experienced a major spinal cord injury while on active duty.

Going to school wasn’t as painful in 2016 when Guerra was taking classes at the community college to earn a certificate in drug and alcohol counseling. A six-person tram shuttled him and other disabled students from parking lots on the campus periphery, up long and steep roads, and dropped them off at the main part of the campus at the top of the hills.

But the college discontinued the tram, saying the it was not required to provide it. Guerra and two other students filed a lawsuit. After a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs, US District Judge Michael Fitzgerald issued a sternly worded order to the college and the district: “You have lost!”

The college, Fitzgerald said, must provide on-demand or point-to-point transportation for plaintiffs by next Monday, the first day of the fall semester.

But how will West LA College comply?

West LA College is administered by the nine campus L.A. Community College District (LACCD). Students sued both entities. The original trial ended in the district and college’s favor, but appeals led to this order to comply.

“The LACCD intends to fully comply with the judge's order,” district spokesperson Juliet Hidalgo said by email on Aug. 6. There was no reply from Hidalgo or other district communication staff with details about what the transportation would be or other details.

A walkway at West LA College

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Disability Rights California

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Left to be seen is whether the college stays within the court’s order to provide transportation to the two students or to widen access to the rest of the college students who are disabled.

“I want all disabled people to be able to go to school there,” Guerra said.

The third student plaintiff died after the lawsuit was filed.

Guerra said that except during the months after the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, he has continued to be enrolled at West LA College. He’s gone from earning a certificate to being just a few classes from earning his associates degree. He’s enrolled for classes that begin next week.

“I’ve become more or less a disability freedom fighter,” Guerra said.

One of the six person carts that transported disabled students at West LA College before being discontinued in 2016.

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It’s still a struggle to get around campus, he said. He’s been using a non-motorized four-wheel walker that has a seat.

It’s not uncommon for California community colleges to provide transportation for students who are disabled.

This local ruling may have broader implications

The ruling to improve access for disabled students comes as community colleges struggle to raise student enrollment after the pandemic. During the same time, disabled student enrollment has dropped significantly statewide at community colleges.

“The court’s ruling makes clear that equal access to public places like colleges goes beyond following specific architectural rules,” Autumn Elliott, a lawyer with Disability Rights California who helped file the lawsuit on behalf of Guerra and two other disabled students.

She said the ruling sends the message that colleges and other public entities should consider the overall experience accessing services for people with disabilities.

“If there’s a barrier to equal access, like the distances and terrain on the West LA campus, then [the entities] need to take reasonable steps to address it,” Elliot said.

Statewide the enrollment of mobility impaired students in California community colleges has dropped significantly in recent years. In the 2015-16 academic year, mobility impaired students made up more than 9% of the student population. In the 2023-24 school year that percentage dropped by nearly half.

Mobility impaired student enrollment at West LA College has fluctuated, from 29 students in 2015-16 to 41 two years later and 13 in the most recent count.