[Ohio-talk] UPDATE from Nicole! Re: looking for advice
richard
rchpay7 at gmail.com
Wed Jul 16 11:08:39 UTC 2014
Hello most states have some type of legal rights and you also should contact the national office. R
-----Original Message-----
From: Ohio-talk [mailto:ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Nicole Poston via Ohio-talk
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2014 1:35 AM
To: ohio-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Ohio-talk] UPDATE from Nicole! Re: looking for advice
Hi All,
So, I’ve been off the grid for a little while now but I wanted to jump in
and give an update on my situation, for those who are interested.
Just to refresh everyone’s memory, I was the one who had posted looking for advice regarding an employment discrimination situation. I’m the special ed. teacher working in a public school system who had been denied reasonable accommodations, even despite filing an internal complaint with the district and coming to a written agreement. To read my complete post, see below
this message.
So, here’s the update! The attorney I had been working with again
contacted the district’s attorney and shared my concerns about the last incident in which they did not follow the agreement. Needless to say, even their attorney was shocked and was going to speak to them about it. I gave them to the end of June to respond but not to my surprise (I know how they act),
they didn’t. So, on June 30th, I filed a formal charge of discrimination
with EEOC. It was not an easy decision…but I felt like they left me no other
choice. It was overwhelming and empowering all at the same time. It is
my understanding through the attorney I have been working with that they were informed quickly about the complaint and the finger pointing has begun…
but they have made no attempt yet at resolving anything. My current task
is now securing legal representation. Although I have been using the union’
s attorney, she is unsure about taking the case moving forward because of concerns of a conflict of interest and also concerns that she may have developed a bias due to our close working relationship. This is somewhat disappointing but yet understandable. However, it leaves me with the task of finding an appropriate attorney moving forward….which I find to be somewhat
stressful, hoping that I am able to make the right choice.
I certainly appreciated everyone sharing their thoughts, advice, experiences, etc. the first time, so I will throw this out to everyone again……I am open to any and all suggestions, thoughts, advice, etc. on any and all parts of the EEOC process including mediation as well as finding and securing appropriate and successful legal representation or any other legal resources
available in dealing with a situation such as this. I appreciate
everyone's thoughts and insights.
Thank you all for your support!
Nicole Poston
In a message dated 5/23/2014 11:09:16 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, ohio-talk at nfbnet.org writes:
Hi,
I am not one to put messages on the list very often and when I do, it is
typically responding to someone else’s message.
I am looking for some advice from others though…to get an idea of what
others might do in my situation. I apologize for the length.
Just some quick background information first. I am legally blind. I
am
finishing my 12th year of teaching in an inner city public school system
as a special education teacher. I have taught in the same school
district
for my entire career. They hired me knowing that I was legally blind and might need a couple reasonable accommodations. For 10 years or so, the
district’s administration was very helpful and very willing to provide
any
reasonable accommodations to me I requested. I certainly wasn’t pushy
and only
asked for things that were essential. They were always more than
willing
to comply with my requests and never questioned anything. Even during
those 10 years, I had several different principals, 2 different Special Education directors, and a couple different Superintendents that I worked under.
For the most part, with the exception of one principal that caused problems for everyone, I had no issues with any administration and any requests I made. The one issue I did have with the principal, the Superintendent at
the time quickly corrected the issue.
In the last couple years, we have acquired a new Superintendent, a new
Special Education director, and new principals. The response I have
received from the current administration has been very different.
At the beginning of December of last year, I made a request for a
reasonable accommodation to my principals. They ignored my request. I
again asked
a couple more times, getting more specific and more direct each time…
.while still being professional and respectful. I was still ignored.
Then at
the beginning of January, I contacted the Superintendent in an attempt to
resolve the issue, which had worked the one other time I had had issues with a principal. The Superintendent also ignored my attempt to contact him and never responded. After discussing it with our union’s attorney (who also happens to practice disability law), it was decided that I would file an
internal ADA complaint within the district. I filed the complaint and
chose to have our union’s attorney act as my representation. The
district
contacted their attorney who then contacted my attorney. After some
discussion and despite my anger, I agreed to mediate the issue without the district
having to go through the investigation process first. Although I was
angry because I felt that the district’s actions were totally out of line and unnecessary, I was not going into this with an attitude of “I’m out to get
them”. I just wanted to continue to be treated in the same manner I had
been for 10 years and be provided reasonable accommodations when I
requested them, nothing more. We held a meeting where it was myself, my
attorney,
the district’s attorney, and administration. We came to a written and
signed agreement between the district and myself as to the reasonable
accommodations that I needed and the district was willing to provide. I
thought
with the signed agreement and my dismissal of the complaint, that we’d all
be able to move on and I’d get what I needed. The agreement was
supposed
to be distributed to all administrators that I work with or under so that
they were aware of the agreement and its contents. About 2 weeks later,
I
was speaking to one of the administrators and I mentioned the agreement… .and they seemed to be unaware of the agreement or its contents. This concerned me. I asked a couple other administrators and received the same response.
So I called my attorney and told her my concerns. I said “How can I expect these people to follow an agreement that they don’t even seem to be
aware of? I mean, that doesn’t seem very fair to them.” She then
contacted
the district’s attorney and we ended up on a three-way conference call.
I
explained my concerns. She did have documentation that all the
administration had been informed of it but stated that she would make contact again with the Superintendent’s office and tell them that they needed to check again with their administrators to ensure they were well aware of the agreement and expectations. Again, I wasn’t out to “get them”…I was simply just
trying to prevent another issue. This was like 2 months ago.
So, now comes today. I was at a district level professional development
meeting in which I was to be provided a reasonable accommodation that
would
allow me gain the information I needed and fully participate in the professional development. Mind you, this professional development is information and training on our new state level teacher evaluation system….which in
turn, directly correlates to my evaluation and ultimately, my job. So,
yes,
it is extremely important stuff. The accommodation I was to be provided
today was on the signed agreement we made months ago. The two
administrators who ran the professional development were both people who were provided the information….one of which was ironically, the Special Education
director. Despite the agreement, I was not provided the accommodation.
I had to
go through the training without it. Needless to say, I am angry and
frustrated. I had 10 great years with no issues. I’ve tried very hard
to
work with the current administration and have tried to understanding and
forgiving. I’ve given them chances to make things right and do the
right
thing. They just don’t seem to care!!!
So, my question is……..what avenue would you do next? Would you try and
mediate yet again, even though they are obviously refusing to follow the
agreement that is already made? Would you file a complaint outside the
district? What direction would you take from here? What suggestions
do you
have?
Any thoughts are appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
Nicole
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