Teacher Sues School District Over Fear of Kids

foxnewsinsider ^ | 1.14.2013 | foxnews

[Morgana]

A teacher in Ohio is suing her school district for discrimination, saying it forced her to teach younger students despite her fear of children. Mariemont school district reassigned 61-year-old Maria C. Waltherr-Willard, a French teacher for 35 years, from high school to junior high school.

The suit claims that the school district knew about Waltherr-Willard’s phobia of children, which she apparently has suffered from since the 1990s, and pressured her to resign.

The fear of young children is real. It’s called pedophobia and has the following symptoms: terror, dread, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, nausea, dry-mouth and anxiety.

[Slings and Arrows]

The fear of young children is real. It’s called pedophobia and has the following symptoms: terror, dread, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, nausea, dry-mouth and anxiety.

Sounds like a reasonable reaction to me.

[RedMDer]

[lacrew]

“That is like an auto mechanic afraid of wrenches”

In the Army, we had a mechanic who was allegedly allergic to petroleum products. No kidding.

[sauron]

Since teaching our children is a sine qua non of the job;

Since being able to instruct the young is a BFOQ (bona fide occupational qualification) she must possess;

Since there is no real prospect for a "reasonable accommodation" to be made on the part of her employer;

and since the employer can justifiably claim that being able to teach children as a schoolteacher is a "business necessity," she should be

TERMINATED.

[ConservativeInPA]

Fire her and take her pension away.

[ottbmare]

Someone fishing for early retirement. Fire her, hire someone young + qualified.

Probably just the opposite. She probably wants to keep working, and they're forcing her out to hire someone younger and cheaper. It's very hard to fire a teacher who hasn't done anything wrong, so they just make the older teachers miserable 'til they leave.

I have seen this happening in my school district near D.C.: they transfer the older, more experienced, and thus more expensive teachers to unspeakable areas, and sometimes subject them to harassment or even to dangerous conditions until they get sick of it and quit. Then they hire a 22-year-old who can barely read and write and certainly doesn't know how to handle a class.

[Clock King]

Little monsters...

[goldi]

I tried to sue one of my bosses over a fear of paperclips.

[ExCTCitizen]

The suit claims that the school district knew about Waltherr-Willard’s phobia of children, which she apparently has suffered from since the 1990s, and pressured her to resign.

If you are afraid of KIDS, Ms. Waltherr-Willard, why are you a TEACHER???

[metmom]

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[RetiredTexasVet]

I would think that she would prefer the Junior High over Senior High .... the little ba$tards haven’t yet developed a good arsenal or fighting skills of the Senior High students.

[aberaussie]

From my short experience (so far) as a substitute teacher, I would much rather teach high school. Junior high is little more than a holding pen in many cases.

[JCBreckenridge]

As one of those young teachers, it’s inspiring to see outright prejudice. :)

Just think, some of us are actually conservatives. ;)

[verga]

I would think that she would prefer the Junior High over Senior High .... the little ba$tards haven’t yet developed a good arsenal or fighting skills of the Senior High students.

I prefer High school myself. You can actually carry on a conversation with them and you don't have the same "raging hormones" issues. Also as a shop teacher they understand safety much better.

[ottbmare]

You are probably not one of the hires I was talking about. You must decide for yourself whether or not my remarks apply to you.

My kids went to school in one the best school systems in the US. Some of the teachers are superb, truly gifted. Some are abominable. For some clueless young teachers, I had to provide a little remedial instruction in English spelling, punctuation, and grammar, which is what they were supposed to be teaching my children.

Over the past thirty years or so, experiments in pedagogy have had a negative effect on students as a whole, and now some of the students who didn’t receive rigorous instruction have grown up to become teachers themselves. Obviously some of them are doing heroic work in very difficult circumstances, but you must concede that some of your colleagues are not wonderful.