Teacher’s Sues School Due To Her “Fear Of Children”

A story from cincinatti.com brings up an interesting topic of lawsuits and discrimination. Here's the backstory from the article.

A longtime French and Spanish high school teacher is suing the Mariemont school district, alleging it discriminated against her because she has a disability – she has a phobia of young children.

Maria C. Waltherr-Willard, 61, of Greenhills says the district in which she worked for 35 years discriminated against her when it reassigned her in 2010 from its high school to its junior high and then pressured her to resign.

Now I hate to be mean here, but if you really do have a legitimately diagnosed phobia of children, would you go into the teaching profession?   Even if you teach High School wouldn't you run into young children??  If you really want to teach how about at the college level or even consider a different profession if you're that concerned.

She "developed" this condition in the late 1990's meaning she didn't have it when she started teaching.  And her attorney says she was promised by the school district she would not have to teach young children.  It all sounds pretty strange but if all this is true she may have a good case against the district.

But I can't help going back to the fact that if you have a phobia of children would you torture yourself by remaining in teaching the profession?   Here's a few other scenarios to thing about.

-Would you go into pet-grooming if you are allergic to animals?

-Would you become an attorney if you have a phobia of public speaking?

-Would you go into landscaping if you have a fear of Garden Gnomes?

Ok, that last one is a bit silly but you get the point. I'm all for becoming whatever you want to be and following your dreams, but sometimes you have to know your limitations, and if you're scared of children, maybe teaching isn't a wise decision.