CINCINNATI, Ohio - A former teacher is suing the U.S. school district where she used to work, saying administrators discriminated against her because she has a rare phobia: a fear of young children.
Sixty-one-year-old Maria Waltherr-Willard had been teaching Spanish and French to teenagers in Ohio since 1976.
She was transferred to another school with younger students in 2009. She says the younger students triggered her phobia, caused her blood pressure to soar and forced her to retire.
Her lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages.
An attorney for the school district says that Waltherr-Willard was transferred because the French program at her school was being turned into an online one and that the other school needed a Spanish teacher.
