Look around Peoria, you will see black folks unemployed, getting passed over for opportunities, not getting jobs because our hair doesn't look "just so"; being the first laid off from their jobs, yet you never hear about any of them suing for discrimination. I've said it before and I'll say it again... it's amazing to me how other folks seem to have no problem finding an attorney that will represent them in discrimination lawsuits. This statement is not to take anything away from Mrs. Lawler's suit, I'm just saying. Anyhow...
At Monday's BOE meeting Terry Knapp said:
... and now:Tenured teacher who was fired from District 150 files lawsuit
One of the tenured Peoria School District 150 teachers fired this spring because of an unsatisfactory evaluation has filed a discrimination lawsuit in federal court, claiming the district failed to consider her disabilities before she was dismissed.
Eymarde Lawler, then a special education teacher at Trewyn School's Day Treatment Program, says, according to the lawsuit, that her unsatisfactory evaluation stemmed from post-traumatic stress disorder and other disorders brought on after she witnessed two gunshot victims immediately after an attempted murder near Trewyn in August 2011 and after she was seriously injured by students.
A week after the shooting, she was assaulted by a student at Trewyn. Suffering from a concussion, she had to be taken from the school by ambulance. Her rotator cuff was injured after an assault by a student in February.
Lawler is one of 10 tenured teachers fired in the wake of new state regulations that allow school districts to bypass seniority rights in work force reductions. So far, she is the only one to file a lawsuit.
Lawler and her attorney, Richard Stegall, charge that the district ignored medical recommendations to transfer her to a classroom of students with less violence-prone disabilities, which forms the basis of the lawsuit.
The school district's failure to accommodate her disability resulted in her unsatisfactory evaluation, Steagall said. The lawsuit also alleges the district retaliated against Lawler for reporting her disability and requesting a transfer.
Lawler had been employed by District 150 for 10 years, gaining tenure after three, which gave her sufficient seniority to avoid the layoff, according to the suit. She had worked at Trewyn for one year.
Lawler, who earned $56,000 a year, is asking to be reinstated to her job as a tenured teacher with back pay, benefits and $1 million in compensatory damages.Source