Well, this has to be the weirdest story we’ve come across today. A former teacher is suing her old school district because she claims she was discriminated against for her fear of children. Yes, you read that right: a teacher who is afraid of children.
Sky News reports that Maria Waltherr-Willard had been teaching French and Spanish at Mariemont High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ms Waltherr-Willard had been working in the school since 1976.
When the 61-year-old teacher was transferred to the district’s middle school back in 2009, the younger children that she had to teach apparently triggered her paedophobia – that is, an intense phobia of young children.
Ms Waltherr-Willard claims that her phobia caused her blood pressure to soar and forced her to take an early retirement in the middle of 2010, which meant that she was subjected to a major loss of earnings.
The teacher is claiming a loss of earnings due to her early retirement
The good news for Ms Waltherr-Willard is that her phobia is actually covered by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, and according to that Act, the school district is at fault for not transferring her back to the high school, like she requested. However, Gary Winters, the school district’s attorney, is claiming that the ex-teacher simply “wants money.”
“Let’s keep in mind that our goal here is to provide the best teachers for students and the best academic experience for students, which certainly wasn’t accomplished by her waking out on them in the middle of the year,” said Mr Winters.
It is unclear how much compensation Ms Waltherr-Willard is demanding but according to reports, the former teacher believes she has lost out on at least $100,000 of potential income as a result of her forced early retirement.
