Retaliatory Termination

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Eymarde Lawler v. Peoria School District No. 150
Case No.: 15-2976
Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and BAUER and KANNE, Circuit Judges
Focus: Retaliatory Termination

Eymarde Lawler was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”) at least five years before School District 150 in Peoria, Illinois, hired her to teach students with learning disabilities. For the next nine years Lawler performed that job satisfactorily and was given tenure, and not until 2010, when her psychiatrist concluded that Lawler had suffered a relapse of her PTSD, did District 150 learn about her impairment. After that Lawler was transferred to a different school to teach children with not only learning disabilities but also severe emotional and behavioral disorders. Both Lawler and her supervisor at the new school thought she was ill-prepared for this new role, but District 150 did not relent. After a year in the new position, Lawler was rated as “satisfactory,” but then at the start of her second year she was injured by a disruptive student, sending her to the hospital with a concussion and neck injury. Her psychiatrist notified District 150 that this episode and other recent incidents had “retriggered” Lawler’s PTSD and that she needed to be transferred to a different teaching environment. District 150 did not transfer Lawler but instead accelerated her next performance appraisal, rated her as unsatisfactory, and fired her as part of an announced reduction in force that ended with all but “unsatisfactory” teachers being rehired. Lawler then filed this action under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, see 29 U.S.C. § 794, claiming that District 150 not only failed to accommodate her PTSD but also fired her in retaliation for requesting an accommodation. The district court granted summary judgment for the school district, and in this appeal the principal issue is whether a jury reasonably could find, as Lawler says, that the school district failed to accommodate her PTSD. We conclude that a jury could find for Lawler, and thus we vacate the judgment and remand the case for trial.
Vacated and Remanded

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