Contract not being renewed due to health

[jangel]

Hi,
I am interested to see if anyone has experience being
discriminated against because of having diabetic.

My son 32 Type 1, 20 years was just told 2 weeks ago
that his contract to teach would not be renewed
and the issue seem to be about lack of money for
his position. at that time????
I guess his health was in the back of our mind.....
would they really try to do this?? Well, found out
today that the Chairman of the Board said in a
meeting that his health was an issue in him not being rehired.

In February he was hospitalized with cellulites that
turned into a staph infection and he was a very sick
man. He was treated very aggreseively with antibiotics
and he had the beginning of renal failure but when the
infection cleared his kidney function improved. He went
back to work the Monday after he got out of the
hospital on Saturday. He had to be readmitted 2 weeks
later because of infection and flu but again he returned
to work really before he was physically able.

In September he developed a blockage of his small
intestines and had to have emergency surgery...this too was life threatening. He was able to return to work after
missing 6 days.

The school agreed to give him more sick days in February
to help makeup for the pay lost but he was required
to submitted medical information from doctors even though
he had medical excuse.

Now we wonder if they used this against him to make
the decision to not rehire him.He was honest with them when they offered him the job that he had diabetics and they said no problem at all.
They wanted him to take high school band director
and he told them due to being out in the heat so much
practicing he would prefer the junior high position and
they hired him. When they wanted him to drive a
school bus of band kids..he told them he was an
insulin diabetic and did not think that would be allowed.
..they were trying to avoid having to hire a driver.

I think that he has being discriminated against.....
This is so sad as he has done really well with his
kids and they like him. He really wants to keep
his job. He feels his only resort is to find a lawyer.

Sorry, this is so long but wanted to tell the whole
story.
Jangel


x

[Chappo]

Hi Jangel,

Very sad to hear about this :( It will depend what country you live in, if you are in Australia then you can submit a report to the Human Rights & Equal Opportunities Commissioner (HREOC) under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and undoubtedly your son will be given a hearing.

Unfortunately i can't provide much advice regarding other countries.

Alex

[davef]

They same would be true in Ireland, if the employed him in the full knowledge that he had a medical condition, they cannot then use that medical reason for dismissing him from his job.

If the Chairman of the school board made the comment at a meeting, there is a possibility that the meeting has official minutes, in which case your son might be able to request a copy of the minutes.

[gambi]

I am so sorry to hear of your son's troubles :-( I do hope his health starts to improve.

I hate to say it but I think you best bet would be to find a good employment lawyer to give advice, each state or country is different with employment laws.

Good luck and I hope everything works out.

[gambi]

I am so sorry to hear of your son's troubles :( . I do hope his health starts to improve.

I hate to say it but I think you best bet would be to find a good employment lawyer to give advice, each state or country is different with employment laws.

Good luck and I hope everything works out.

[morrisma]

This is terrible treatment. I'd hope the US would be as good as Australia or Ireland in their defense of rights but I'm not sure that's so. It may depend very much on which state he's in. A lawyer (sadly) may be the only recourse, at least to get an opinion.

[pegasus]

I'm also sorry to hear about your son's current health status, and troubles. If he's in the US he may be covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is federal, not state (tho some states might have stronger laws). You might want to contact the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a fed agency; also your local fed Senator/Representative. You also might want to try the National Employment Law Project (offices in NY, Oakland/San Francisco); there are also some national disabled-rights groups I can't think of right now but if you want to PM me--if you're in the US obviously--I might be able to find out which ones to suggest. If his school is unionized, he should check there too; also, state and sometimes local (if big city) govs have human rights departments that cover disability rights.

Good luck!

[Erin]

I'm sorry your son has had so many medical issues this year! It sounds really tough. That said it sounds like the school district has gone above and beyond what is necissary in providing accomodations. They enabled him to get MORE sick leave than what he would otherwise be entitled by providing documentation of his illness.

In my district once you use up your sick leave you can borrow more, but you have to pay it back (either with money or with future sick days you don't use) before you leave the system, AND if you miss more than 10 days in a year you get a U-rating for attendance, even if the days were medically necessary.

That U rating would be grounds for not being offered a position the following year, especially for an untenured teacher.

And arts bugets have been cut and cut and cut this year. My school fired the librarian in November, for no other reason than the budget. (And how did they choose the librarian, she provided a non-essential service, and nobody liked her all that much... I'm thinking, the band director who misses a lot of days would fit the same niche).

It sounds like a horrible situation, but it does not, at first glance, seem like a discrimination case to me. It sounds like rotten policy set from the district that views the arts as non-essential.

[JediSkipdogg]

With it being a contract there's alot more that comes into play. He was technically not fired, he was just not renewed.

The main problem is the education system in the US. All are coming under fire for needing more money and are cutting staff left and right. Your son was in the music department...think about it this way...

If you have a say Chorus director and a Band director and you only have money for one and both are on contract, which would you renew? The one that used alot of sick time or the one that used none?

Where I work we have a dispatcher that has near zero hours of sick time and she has been with the city 25 years. Whenever she earns it, she burns it by being sick. Yet another dispatcher that has been there just under 15 years has over 1800 hours of sick time. Which is more reliable? Reliability plays a huge part in contract jobs and they want the most reliable person. I do contract work all the time for video and computer services. People want the most reliable workers in my lines of contract work.

It's tough but I'm not really sure there's much you can do. Where are you to begin with? That may help some of us and since it's a contract, that will add another spin onto it.