Teacher sues school who fired her saying it discriminated against her disability... a phobia of young children

An Ohio school teacher is suing her school district, saying that it discriminated against her on the basis of her disability: a phobia of young children.



Maria C. Waltherr-Willard, of Greenhills, Ohio, had worked as a high school French and Spanish teacher but alleges the school district reassigned her to teach junior high as a way of expediting her exit.



The 61-year-old she suffers from pedophobia, a fear of young children, and she says the Mariemont school district knew of her condition and still assigned her to teach younger aged students.



Lawsuit: Maria Waltherr-Willard, 61, is suing her school district, saying that it discriminated against her on the basis of her disability: a phobia of young children

The woman says she has suffered from the condition since the 1990s and had been told by the school district that she would not have to teach young children, according to Cincinnati.com .



As part of her suit, she included documents from her doctor, psychiatrists and psychologists that explain how she experiences stress, anxiety, chest pains, vomiting, nightmares and high blood pressure when she is in contact with young children.

She began teaching high school at the school district in 1976 and was asked to teach students from 4th to 6th grade in 1997 but she declined on the basis of her condition.



The school district accommodated her request at that time and she remained a teacher at the high school level.



But in 2009, she was transferred to a junior high, to teach 7th and 8th grade Spanish.

Fear: Maria C. Waltherr-Willard, 61, said she was transferred to the Mariemont Junior High School despite her phobia

School: The woman had taught French and Spanish at the Mariemont High School for many years

She claims the transfer was a means of punishment for causing an uproar among parents about the district's plan to offer the French class online and no longer in a face-to-face format.



The teacher has alleged that Dr. James Renner, principal of the high school, wanted her to retire

She says the high school principal James Renner reprimanded her and warned her against inciting anger among parents about the changes.



She claims he threatened that she could lose her job.

She claims that by January 2011, after teaching at the junior high school, her blood pressure was at dangerous levels.



She retired in March 2011 and filed a lawsuit against the school district in June 2011.



A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed three of the six counts of her lawsuit, including her allegation that the school district violated her contract by placing her in a classroom with young students.



The other allegations of the suit could still move forward and the case could still go to trial.



'It's a tough phobia. You can't really get away from (children) when you're outside,' Dr. Caleb Adler, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati, told the website.