An Ohio school teacher who claims to be stricken with a pedophobia, an intense fear of young children, is suing the school district because she claims her disorder led to her forced resignation.
Maria C. Waltherr-Willard, 61, had been a teacher for 35 years at the Mariemont School District in Marimont, Ohio, formerly teaching Spanish and French to high school students without incident. Walther-Willard claims that when the school district reassigned her to a middle school classroom, the children triggered her pedophobia, rendering her paralyzed with fear and unable to perform her duties as a teacher.
Waltherr-Willard claims that she was targeted by school officials for voicing her opposition to removing teacher led classroom French in favor of online classes. Waltherr-Willard claims that when she spoke out about the change to students and parents, the school punished her by transferring her to a school with younger children than the ones she currently teaches.
Waltherr-Willard claims in the lawsuit that the transfer is causing her physical pain including, but not limited to, anxiety, chest pains, high blood pressure, nausea and nightmares.
According to the NY Daily News, a federal judge has recently dismissed three out of the six claims in Waltherr-Willard’s lawsuit, saying that she resigned voluntarily and that the district was only required to offer her a teaching job, not guarantee what teaching job she would be placed in.
It is not clear whether Waltherr-Willard’s lawyers will pursue the other three claims.