Posted on 02/14/2015 11:58:08 AM PST by Brother Cracker
CINCINNATI, An Ohio teacher with a phobia of young children lost an appeal accusing her former district of failing to accommodate her disability.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati rejected the appeal from Maria Waltherr-Willard, 63, who had accused the Mariemont district of age discrimination and a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Waltherr-Willard, a French and Spanish teacher, alleged the district knew she suffered from pedophobia, a fear of small children, when she was transferred in 2009 from Mariemont High School to the district's middle school.
The teacher, who retired in January 2011 when her request to be transferred back to the high school was denied, accused the school district of age discrimination for giving the high school Spanish teacher position to a younger instructor and a violation of the ADA for failing to accommodate her pedophobia.
Waltherr-Willard said teaching at the middle school repeatedly caused her blood pressure to rise to dangerous levels.
The court ruled the ADA "requires an employer to accommodate a disabled employee, but it does not require unreasonable accommodations."
The court also rejected the age discrimination allegations, saying the Spanish teacher employed at Mariemont High School is only two years younger than Waltherr-Willard.
Dr. Caleb Adler, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati, said pedophobia is a recognized but rare anxiety disorder.
"It's a tough phobia. You can't really get away from [children] when you're outside," he told The Chincinnati Enquirer. "When you're a teacher, it may not be an issue with older students."
A secondary school teacher afraid of kids?
That’s like joining the circus when you’re afraid of clowns.
A teacher with a fear of children...
Looks like she fears beheading too.
Latent Labophobia. Fear of working for a living.
Perhaps she should have gotten the hell out of that profession long ago. Too funny!
Read O. Henry’s classic “The Ransom of Red Chief”.
Some children are indeed to be feared.
Yeah, a teacher with a fear of children is “disabled.” So then I guess a lifeguard with a fear of the water, or a pilot with a fear of heights, or a blind painter must be too, huh? They should get a bunch of government money instead of finding a more appropriate profession, is that it?
Well, at least this is a story about a pedophobic teacher for a change, and not a pedophilic one!
Well, she started out as a high school teacher, and then they transferred her to the middle school.
I think it was short-sighted of her not to consider that possibility when she chose her career path though.
There is hardly a difference between eighth grades and ninth graders in height. It isn’t as if she was placed in a room of screaming two year olds after teaching 15 year olds. Freaking out over two or three years age difference makes me think she doesn’t want to be in the classroom at all, but not for a real mental disorder.
If she truly had that mental illness, it should have disqualified her from any teach position at all. If she actually had such a condition, she should have had the foresight not to enter teaching at all - with high school, she’d probably encounter teens with babies, a double whammy.
There are actually desensitization treatments for phobias. Why didn’t the teacher seek treatment?
I am distrustful of her motives. There isn’t enough evidence to judge whether she genuinely has a (treatable) phobia, or if she’s a gold digger.
That’s like a president with fear of laws!
I remember some time back, a Muslim woman won a discrimination case, I think it was in Minnesota, because her boss required her to ring up pork and liquor. Funny thing, she was a check out girl, so she was let go. I believe she ended up winning that suite and collecting substantial damages.
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