A longtime French and Spanish high school teacher is suing the Mariemont school district, alleging it discriminated against her because she has a disability – she has a phobia of young children.
Maria C. Waltherr-Willard, 61, of Greenhills says the district in which she worked for 35 years discriminated against her when it reassigned her in 2010 from its high school to its junior high and then pressured her to resign.
The suit claims the discrimination is based on her age and her disability, a rare phobia called pedophobia, which in this context means an extreme fear or anxiety around young children.
Waltherr-Willard’s lawsuit claims she has suffered from the condition since the 1990s and that Mariemont had made assurances to her and her lawyer that she would not have to teach young children.
Documents filed in the case by her medical doctor, psychiatrists and psychologists note that she experiences stress, anxiety, chest pains, vomiting, nightmares and higher than healthy blood pressure when she’s around young children.
A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed three of the six claims in her lawsuit, claims which alleged Mariemont violated an implied contract to keep her from young students.
District Judge Herman J. Weber said the district lived up to its written contract – with the teachers union – and that Waltherr-Willard would still be employed had she not resigned.
In other news a mechanic sued for discrimination due to his disability, a fear of cars. A fireman sued for discrimination due to his disability, a fear of being burned by fire. And Republican Chairman Reince Priebus sued over discrimination do to HIS disability a fear of racist assholes.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Look I'm trying to be sympathetic here, and I certainly know how frightening some children can be, but perhaps this is simply not the job for this woman.
It sounds like they tried to rectify the situation by moving her to middle school, though to be honest how junior high school kids could be less frightening than elementary age kids is beyond me, and still she was not happy. (She had been working in high school but that program came to an end.)
My advice is that this woman retire and simply do something else for a living. I mean how in the hell you can expect to work as a teacher while terrified of your students is completely beyond me.
A few years ago a pretty young woman sought and acquired a job at Hooters
ReplyDelete...then sued them because of the "skimpy costume" they wanted her to wear.
That made every bit as much sense.
(She lost the case, as I recall
...they laughed her out of the courtroom)
Why on earth couldn't they keep her at the high school level, where she had been working? No, there's more to this story. Because evidently they had it on record that she has a fear of small children; she'd been working at the high school, and then they move her to a younger age group- you don't just do that. Most high schools will have some language program. They wanted rid of her for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI spent 11 years on a school board. Good foreign language teachers are gold: you have to have a foreign language program so kids can get into college. We're not hearing the whole story.
If go to the main article you would discover something which school boards should be aware of - program funding got cut.
DeleteI agree there is much more to the story. Cutting programs is a quick way to start getting rid of teachers with tenure or teachers who fight back. They do not get rid of bad teachers who don't give them any problems. The woman is over 60 and probably has many years of service there are no other places for her, and the school knows that.
DeleteFor heaven's sake, Gryphen, she was a high school teacher and fine there, why did they not leave her there? Why was she transferred to a school where she would come in contact with smaller kids?
ReplyDeleteShe is near her retirement and this sounds suspiciously like they were trying to get her to quit using her disability as a reason to fire her if she did not. The same shit happens in other industries, transferring someone who had problems with lifting heavy weights to a shipping department for instance. This happened to my dad when he got older. He could not handle the heavier boxes, so they canned him and he lost his pension. Unfortunately for him, he did not have a union to protect his rights as a worker.
Listen, you have no idea how frightening junior high kids can be. After all, they're mutants enveloped in hormone hurricanes. The brain shrinks while the mouth grows like it is on anaebolic steroids.
ReplyDeleteThe solution is, to never assign her to elementary schools. That's possible.
ReplyDeleteMy sister who just retired after working over 30 years as an elementary school teacher, spent her entire career teaching elementary school. My uncle retired after spending over 40 years teaching at the university level.
So why can't this woman only be assigned to junior and high schools. It's that simple.
I need to revise my 3:52 AM post, above.
DeleteI see that she considers junior high schoolers too much for her, too, so the school district should only assign her to, and keep her at the high school level.
Although I don't consider junior high schoolers young children, I guess she does.
IN many ways, there are huge differences. Puberty, for one. And maturity. Middle schoolers can be as young as ten. That is indeed a child. High schoolers are 14-18. real world of difference. I know, I have both at home now.
DeleteThe younger is much more concerned with wild fun, the older has become very self-aware and image conscious re: his behavior - he checks it himself for maturity.
Junior high kids are usually 12 and 13, hardly what I would call young children. Hell, most of the girls are fully developed and lots of the boys are already shaving by then anyway.
ReplyDeleteThis woman sounds like a whack a doodle who probably has no business teaching anymore anyway.
Junior high schoolers are not young children. They are middle-age children.
DeleteYoung children would be considered from the age of 11 and under.
AS I read it she was teaching in high school and they moved her to middle school, thereby inducing the anxiety, and, according to her, breaking their word not to make her teach young children --- the middle school kids being too young for her, I guess.
ReplyDeleteIf they knew she had this problem and she did not suffer while teaching high school for many years, it would seem she has a case --- and while three claims were thrown out, three seem to remain.
OT
ReplyDeleteGryphen,
How did you miss posting this? It's Betty Bowers and even includes a quick shot of Bitchtol Palin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFkeKKszXTw
What distresses me most is that the school district would end its teaching of French and Spanish at the high school level. That's just crazy.
ReplyDeleteHappening all over, but usually they pull languages from middle school first - so that is a bit weird, though actually in line with the science of language acquisition.
DeleteGryphen, sorry, but you are completely off-base here. Teens are not young children. Some middle schoolers are.
ReplyDeleteI am an educator. I can work with students from late middle school through undergrads at a university - some of whom are also teens.
The thought of an entire spending the entire day with a groups of first graders send me into a cod sweat. When my kids were little, torture was a Chucky Cheese birthday party at which I had to be present.
Of course the disability was a last resort. Because everyone here has the reaction this school did - she doesn't LIKE kids. I like them, but can't relate to large groups of them even though I too am a teacher. And with our overcrowded classrooms today - yikes! The thought of spending an entire day with no adult conversation? Remember, in teh'50's many of those trapped at home moms took copious quantities of valium - there was a reason.
"My advice is that this woman retire and simply do something else for a living."
ReplyDeleteAt sixty-one?
For the first time - FUCK YOU, Gryphen.
DO you have an inkling of the age discrimination out there, especially against women? Not to mention the problem for many teachers? Schools DO NOT WANT teachers with advanced degrees - too expensive. Or teachers with experience - TOO EXPENSIVE. Admins LOOOOVE them the stupid young thing with a st stack of student loans, still able to live at home who will merely nod and agree to whatever pedagogically idiotic policy they put in place.
Sounds like she may have watched "Children of the Corn" a few too many times....!
ReplyDeleteI believe there is more to the story (there always is).
ReplyDeleteBut I have to say---I speak at jr. high schools all over the country and there has not been one time where I would have considered the occupants "young children". Ninety percent of them were many inches taller than my five foot plus frame. A lot of the boys looked like pro footballers and many of the girls looked like they were old enough to vote. But all maintained that wonderfully memorable adolescent posture.
Also--these kids are so emotionally and developmentally distant from young elementary aged children the mind boggles. But I am not in the woman's head about what her mind perceives as young children.
Of course, there is the distinct possibility the school administration could have been playing games with her (it happens a lot) and she just got fed up.
You should be aware that the terms middle school or junior high vary by state and system. Each may include 7th and 8th only or 5th -8th.
DeleteNot cool, Gryphen. What kind of job will she be able to do if she retires? Sounds like when she chose her profession, she did not yet have any problems with anxiety or young children. It developed. I'm disappointed in your lack of compassion. We are only hearing the side of the story designed to destroy her credibility.
ReplyDeleteI am from Cincinnati. There is much more to this story than is being presented. It is NOT age discrimination - it's someone who is feeling a wee bit entitled and chose to use the court system to punish the school board. She was reassigned based on the budget decisions in the district ('specials', as music, library, art, etc. are called here, have been eliminated in our district and others due to funding issues) and she did not want to move to another school and take another position. She had it pretty cushy where she was. And her high BP has nothing to do with her 'phobia': she is morbidly obese. Her 'phobia' has been called into question by many - she is a village councilmember and was campaigning this summer at village events at local parks, which were - GASP - full of little kids running around. The bottom line is that she is discrediting teachers, the court system, the mental health profession, and people with legitimate mental health issues by pushing this B.S. to get her way, keep her old job, and make $$$ more as a specialist when the district can't even afford art supplies for the elementary kids.
ReplyDeleteoutdoor at a park with other adults is very different from a crowded classroom for which you are responsible for the occupants.
DeleteWow... what an incredibly stupid and insensitive post Gryph. Look, a phobia IS NOT RATIONAL. OF COURSE it doesn't make sense to you. Does being afraid of going outside make sense to you? Or fear of telephones ringing? If you read what you posted, she was FINE teaching HIGH SCHOOL. It was when they moved her to teach younger kids that was the problem. And it was a problem she claims the school board knew about.
ReplyDeleteCharacterizing it as a hilarious story about a teacher who is either afraid of STUDENTS, or lying to try and milk the school district for money is a Fox news-worthy level of assholery.
So, way to publish someone's photo and try to publicly humiliate them Gryph. Some real class on display there.
See above comment post. See original story. See history of actions by this woman.
DeleteYes she is a whackaloon. And yes, she is trying to milk the system for her benefit.
And, yes, it is HARD for an older person to find work. But, if you are a specialist, and good at what you do, you can find positions. So, while a bit of Gryph's post isn't PC - ITS HIS BLOG!
It is his blog, and I've been reading it for a very long time. I don't feel the need to agree on every single point, at all. But when one of his responses seems utterly incongruous with his normal tone, I might comment. And I don't know where you live, but technical excellence is absolutely not any sort of guarantee that one will be hired.
DeleteHedgewytch - you have it really wrong. I have three educators in my family . All have advanced degrees. All have gotten stellar evaluations for years. Guess what? Two of us are unemployed and having difficulty finding positions even though we've applied everywhere - yet the sweet young TOTES inexperienced twenty something who happens to be dating a nephew - got the job.
DeleteNo tell us how easy it is to get a job a few years before retirement.
This is a low for Gryphen. I agree.
ReplyDeleteSorry Gryph - off base here. And I speak as one who also does NOT like kids much under the age of 15. I am wonderful with teens, but just the thoughts of being surrounded (or even in a room with just a few) younger kids, gets my back up something fierce. Since my own kids became teens, I have no problem with their friends around (and some never seem to want to leave), but just could not handle it when they were young. But then again, I will be the first to point out to anyone, I just don't like other people's kids. Nothing personal, just not my comfort zone.
ReplyDeleteO/T but great news!
ReplyDeleteFaster and Faster: The Same-Sex Marriage Momentum
For those involved in state-level battles for gay rights, timelines are getting shorter. Take Delaware: The state's first bill that would have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation was introduced back in 1998. The state’s gay-rights community had to fight for 11 years to finally see it pass in 2009. Just two years later, however, the legislature passed a civil-unions law by a relatively large margin less than two months after it was introduced.
Now, as activists turn their attention to marriage, they’re hoping lawmakers will continue to step up the pace and pass a bill this session. “We are confident that we will have the votes in both houses to pass marriage,” says Lisa Goodman, president of the state’s leading advocacy group, Equality Delaware.
Across the country, marriage-equality advocates are getting their first taste of something sweet—momentum. A majority of Americans now support same-sex marriage and the number continues to rise as younger folks enter the electorate. The number of states legalizing same-sex marriage has gone from a slow trickle to what looks like an increasingly steady stream.
http://prospect.org/article/faster-and-faster-same-sex-marriage-momentum
She's apparently been quite capable for doing her job for almost 20 decades because she was in high school.
ReplyDeletePhobia or not, reassigning a high school teacher to elementary or even junior high is not the best use of their skills. Those are completely different students you are dealing with and a completely different curriculum.
She is correct in that this reassignment was designed to force her into resigning her job.
Sorry, but there it is. The underlying cause is probably age discrimination. They looked at her record, saw she was 61 and had taught in high school and decided the easiest way to get rid of her (to replace her with a young, CHEAP teacher) was to reassign her to what we would term a "shitty" assignment.
I'm sure those in other professions have similar terms for it.
Whether she can use pedophobia or not, I don't know. But it is age discrimination and this district did it to get rid of her.
So much for the "at will employee" defense of "as long as you're good at your job, you have nothing to be worried about."
That is utter bullshit.
The woman has a phobia for young children so she quits a middle school job? This is hillarious!
ReplyDeleteSounds like it was a good time for her to retire. Perhaps she can get a nice job at a community college or volunteer somewhere. :-)
Community college? All they are hiring these days is adjuncts - at $1000 per course - if it runs at all - you try to live on ten grand per year, when you life has been set up (debts incurred)around a minimum of $50K.
DeleteOkay. This teacher might be better off retired. There are lots of things that she can do as a retiree.
ReplyDeleteBut, as a person holding a master's degree + in French, I am troubled that a school district would discontinue high school French "face to face" classes. It won't do the students any good to have French classes via the internet or a recording device. What is the point of teaching foreign languages to fourth graders if you are not going to continue it through high school at least? And classroom time is vital because learning a foreign language is so much more than copying pronunciation and memorizing verb endings. Learning a foreign language opens doors to other cultures, to history, to literature. That's my rant for the day.
Beaglemom
Go look at what is happening with MOOCs and cyberschools, Beaglemom. Good article in Chronicle of Higher Ed today.
DeleteJEBUS PEOPLE
ReplyDeleteThis teacher lost her high school job because of FUNDING CUTS. It's happening all over. And if its anyone's fault it is the State's for cutting the funding for schools.
Jeesh.
This is OHIO. School funding is a huge problem in our state, originating at the state government level (surprise - Republican domainated at all levels now, thanks stupid Tea Party), and from garden-variety cronyism and mismanagement at the local district level derailing sensible budgets due to ignorance and politicking. Because so many districts are in the red, under an 'emergency fiscal rating', ALL of the 'specials' classes and programs have been eliminated to save money. Extracurricular programs have been put into a 'pay or no play' status, including band and athletics. So when you get yourself in a twist about a French language program at the HS level being cut, believe me, people are far more outraged about the programs cut at the K-5 level, where the kids are just beginning to enjoy those classes and build that knowledge. My son has had no library, no art class, no music, since kindergarten. He's a third grader now. We make up what we can at home. The classroom teachers do their best to incorporate 'culture' into their curricula, but guess what? They have taken paycuts repeatedly over the past several years in spite of their unions' lobbying and most are happy just to be employed. Admin pay and expenses have barely been touched. No shock there. I doubt this is unique to Ohio, although the public school funding structure is. So this particular teacher chooses to make a stink about being moved from HS to MS while making a substantial salary while all the school funding issues are firing up everyone in the state, of all parties and political stripes - she has just made herself a target of the district. If she had really wanted to keep her job, she would have accepted the reassignment graciously regardless of the board's intent (age discrimination or whatever endgame was in play) and eventually chose to retire quietly - but in the midst of a volatile public school debate, she's thrown gas on the fire with this lawsuit. I can't help but wonder what strategy her lawyer was planning - pedophobia affecting a teacher with 35 years experience is bound to be called out as plain stupid. Better that if she thought it was discrimination, she should have called it what it was from the start and fought the district on that point. Now she is a laughingstock and worse, a flashpoint for low-information people who still think teachers are entitled snots who are paid too much and get summers off. No one wins here.
ReplyDeleteWell said.
DeleteI've taught all grades - Middle school is the worst. Kids that age are just plain evil.
ReplyDeleteThe living embodiment of Darwin's thesis.
DeleteThose little kids are always sticky, dirty and pooping and peeing in their pants. I can understand this teacher's horror. It takes a very special person to be around one little kid under age 7, much less 30 of them. There aren't enough Clorox wipes....
ReplyDeleteI can see both sides. The school's suffered from budget cuts and they at least tried to place her in another job. And she has an irrational fear of kids, which doesn't bode well for her career in teaching.
ReplyDeleteBut, according to Greenhills site, she's an elected official, wouldn't that expose her to children while dealing with the public? I would imagine being in a job dealing with the public would be just as stessful. And I don't think it helps her case either.
http://www.greenhillsohio.us/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=151:elected-officials&catid=34:government&Itemid=73
One of the commenters at the original article claimed that the teacher had campaigned at some local outdoor concerts, with little kids all around. If this intense fear of young children is so bad for her that it's considered a disability, you'd think she would have difficulty going out in public to shop for herself, enjoying a library, and certainly going out and meeting voters at a concert.
Delete