The following ABC News video is about a teacher in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, who has sued the Mariemont school district for discrimination. Maria C. Waltherr-Willard says she was forced to resign. She lives in Greenhills, Ohio, which is in Hamilton County (same as Cincinnati).
Waltherr-Willard appears to legitimately have a condition called “pedophobia,” which is essentially a fear of children. Despite that knowledge, the school district forced her to move from a high school to a junior high school. She said this forced her to have high blood pressure, stress, and other physical ailments.
It seems that the school was not providing her reasonable accommodations, which is the requirement of employers to avoid violating anti-discrimination laws in America. They would not move her back to the high school despite her requests.
But the school has the defense that they did not fire her and did not force her to resign. Indeed, it seems that Waltherr-Willard did resign of her own accord. This may have been her downfall as it relates to this lawsuit. She should have stayed on with the job and sued while still working in the Mariemont school district as a teacher. Now, she may end up losing her case.
So, while the case sounds ridiculous on its face, it does become stronger when you realize the only thing she wanted was to teach high school. That sounds like a perfectly “reasonable” reasonable accommodation to me. But she really may have hurt herself legally by resigning. This claim that they forced her to resign lacks credibility. They may, indeed, have wanted her out for whatever reason. But she is the one who actually jumped and is now claiming she was pushed. That makes for a much weaker case than she would have had if she had stayed on.
Sources:
Cincinnati.com Report On Pedophobia Discrimination Lawsuit Filed Against Mariemont School District By Maria C. Waltherr-Willard