By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

MARIEMONT, Ohio – A former Ohio high school teacher has filed a lawsuit against her former employer, claiming she was the victim of discrimination because she was transferred to a middle school job and forced to retire early after explaining to administrators that she has a medically-diagnosed fear of young children.

Maria Waltherr-Willard, who taught French and Spanish language classes in the Mariemont school district for 35 years, said she had an agreement with administrators since the 1990s that she would not be put in a position to teach “young children,” according to a report from Cincinnati.com.

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She said she suffers from pedophobia, which involves extreme anxiety or fear around young children.

But in 2010 she was transferred from a high school to a middle school teaching job, which she performed for two years before retiring in 2011. She claims she was forced into retirement by high blood pressure that reached dangerous levels. She said she begged for a chance to return to the high school but was never given her wish.

Waltherr-Willard claims the district was getting revenge because she talked to parents in 2009 about the likelihood of the high school dropping French classes, and some of the parents complained to administrators, according to the news report.

Waltherr-Willard experienced stress, anxiety, chest pains, vomiting, nightmares, as well as high blood pressure, in the presence of the middle school students, according to her lawsuit.

We thought those were typical daily symptoms for most K-12 teachers.

Seriously, though, it’s hard to imagine how a professional educator can be perfectly fine teaching 16- and 17-year olds, then become a nervous mess  teaching  13- and 14-year-olds. Is there really that much difference in their behavior?

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Schools only have so many positions to fill. The fact was that the high school was phasing out French, and the district had an open spot for a middle school Spanish teacher. That’s what it had to offer.

If Ms. Waltherr-Willard felt she lacked the emotional capacity to do that job, she probably should have retired before transferring. It’s a pretty fair bet that she had enough years of service to collect full retirement benefits.

If the school district has to pay this former teacher legal damages, there is something terribly wrong with our legal system.