Maria C. Waltherr-Willard is suing the Mariemont school district claiming it discriminated against her over her disability – a phobia of young children.
61 year-old Waltherr-Willard claims that the district discriminated against her when she was reassigned from it’s high school to it’s junior high school and then pressured her to resign. The suit claims that the discrimination is based on her age and a rare disability known as pedophobia. An extreme fear that stems from being around young children.
Waltherr-Willard claims that she has suffered from the condition since the 1990′s and that the district made assurances to both herself and her lawyer that she would not have to teach anywhere below high school level.
Experts in phobias say that irrational fear or anxiety around children is a rare but recognized anxiety disorder. However, it’s unclear how many people have been diagnosed with it.
Several documents filed in the case have been notated by her doctor, psychiatrists, and psychologists. All of them agree that Waltherr-Willard experiences stress, anxiety, chest pains, vomiting, nightmares and high blood pressure when she’s around kids.
Despite all her evidence, a federal judge dismissed three of the six claims in her lawsuit on Wednesday. District Judge Herman J. Weber stated that the district upheld it’s end of the written contract, and that Waltherr-Willard would still be employed if she wouldn’t have resigned.
However he didn’t rule on the other main allegations in the suit, giving the district attorney’s office more time to respond to them. If the case goes to trial, it will start in February of 2014.
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