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RSSSchool district prevails in Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit
DECATUR - A United States District Court judge found in favor of the Decatur School District on Friday in a case alleging discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Jo Anne "Jody" O'Dell, formerly a dean at Eisenhower High School, filed the case March 18, 2005. O'Dell's complaint charged that the district had failed to provide her with reasonable accommodations on the job for health problems including asthma, depression and other emotional disorders. She had asked for more than $1 million.
"The charges against District 61 were unfounded, and the district was acquitted (Friday)," said Dawn Hunter, spokeswoman for the district.
O'Dell worked for the district from August 1994 to March 2004. Court papers indicate that O'Dell was principal of South Shores School until July 2002 and was at that time removed from that job and transferred to Eisenhower as a dean.
She said she was forced to take time off from work due to her medical condition and that a result of her medical condition is that she is substantially limited in her ability to function under stressful conditions for more than nine hours a day. Her request for accommodations, among other things, included a limitation on the hours she spent at school.
After being exposed to pepper spray while helping break up a fight at school, the papers say, O'Dell suffered a flare-up of her asthma and shortly thereafter, took a Family and Medical Leave Act leave from her job "due to the serious nature of her inability to emotionally deal with the incident and her resulting asthma flare-up." She resigned in March 2004 rather than return to work when the district requested it.
O'Dell said the case is not over.
"This will continue as a point of advocacy for those with disabilities, and will be considered in the legislative realm in Congress," she said. "The Americans with Disabilities Act is being shunned, and mishandled by federal judges. They do not want to deal with it. In fact, what the judge did in my case was not only a detriment to me personally, it was spitting in the face of all who are disabled."
Valerie Wells can be reached at vwells@herald-review.com or 421-7982.
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