Holt teacher with anxiety over mass shootings sues school over refusal to make accommodations

DELHI TWP. — A Holt Junior High School teacher is suing her school district and local officials, saying the district has ignored her requests for accommodations that would ease her anxiety and PTSD concerning school safety amid mass shootings in schools.

The federal lawsuit filed earlier this month, on April 9, is at least the third lawsuit for Holt Public Schools since the fall and the second accusing the school system of discrimination.

Nicole McGaugh, a seventh-grade math teacher, told the State Journal she felt increasingly unsafe teaching, due to mass shootings in schools, including at Michigan's Oxford High School in 2021. After a student reported finding a bullet outside her classroom in November of that year, McGaugh took an extended leave because of her anxiety.

McGaugh claims in her complaint that the district and Executive Director of Curriculum Jessica Cotter failed to accommodate for her disability with assurances such as a lock for her classroom door and discriminated against her.

McGaugh also claims in the complaint that the district retaliated against her when she made a report with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, alleging the school disciplined students of color harsher than white students and did not give students the disability accommodations they needed.

The district violated state and federal laws meant to protect McGaugh and others with disabilities including the American with Disabilities Act and the Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, said McGaugh's Lansing-based attorney Elizabeth Abdnour.

McGaugh's lawsuit names the district, its Board of Education and Cotter as defendants. None were immediately available for comment.

Tim Mullins, the Troy-based attorney who is representing the district, Cotter and the school board, said McGaugh's requested accommodations would have placed an "undue burden" on the school district, and that she wants to change protocol for everyone else in the district.

"She doesn't want to work the way everyone else is," he said.

He said some of her accommodations would compromise the safety of students. A classroom door that locks, for example, wouldn't be possible.

"You can't just keep a classroom under lockdown because you're afraid of what might happen," Mullins said.

Michigan State University has installed thousands of door locks on its classrooms since a mass shooting in February of 2023 in which a gunman entered a classroom in Berkey Hall.

McGaugh told the State Journal that she didn't want to sue the district, but her multiple attempts to resolve her concerns didn't go anywhere. Her attorney repeatedly tried to settle with the district but stopped hearing back from the district's attorneys with no explanation.

For her, it's most important to be able to teach, while feeling safe and supported.

"I love my kids," she said. "I just don't trust (the district) to keep me safe."

McGaugh, who has been teaching at the district for over two decades, said her problems with the district began in 2021, when she became "disappointed" in the district after how officials handled her disability accommodations request to mitigate her anxieties.

"I've thrown away all my Holt clothing," she said. "I don't like saying I work there."

McGaugh said she struggles with anxiety and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and was prescribed medication.

While on leave, she asked the school to provide accommodations for her when she returned. Under the ADA, an anxiety disorder that interferes with someone's daily activities is considered a disability that an employer must provide accommodations for.

McGaugh asked for eight accommodations and told the State Journal that she would be willing to work with the district's administration on implementing them. Among what she asked for was a solid core classroom door with a lock to be installed for her room, an updated emergency operating plan for the school and permission for at least one other individual to attend her meetings with the school's principal.

She said that these were meant to help her feel comfortable returning to school and would also improve the general safety of the school. She said she understood that some of her requests wouldn't be able to be completed immediately and that she didn't expect them to be.

"At any point in time, I would have been willing to work with the district on the safety issues," she said. "I have serious safety concerns about our buildings."

McGaugh submitted her accommodations request in January 2022, while she remained on leave, around the same time she filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, alleging Holt Public Schools was discriminating against students based on race, color, and disability.

She said in her complaint that no one from the district contacted her until July of 2022, after the OCR said it began an investigation into her discrimination claims.

In the lawsuit, McGaugh said that during those intervening months, district employees accused her of falsifying paperwork from her doctors who confirmed the extent of her disorder and what the school could do to mitigate the effects so she could still teach effectively.

McGaugh's complaint said a human resources employee never sent her medical release form to her doctors and later said McGaugh shouldn't be teaching in a classroom if her condition was that severe.

Cotter denied McGaugh's accommodation requests in a letter sent the day after McGaugh received the notification from the OCR, the lawsuit said. Cotter claimed that the requests were the responsibility of the district's Board of Education and administration and were outside the scope of McGaugh's employment. Cotter said that the district would not be engaging with McGaugh further regarding the list of accommodations.

"I felt like they wanted me to shut up and put up," McGaugh said.

McGaugh's complaint states that even if the requests would need to be implemented at the discretion of the board, this "has no bearing on whether such could be considered, provided, or would cause undue hardship to HPS as an accommodation."

When McGaugh returned to teaching in February 2023, she discovered nearly 15 of her teaching binders, which she'd used for over two decades were gone, the lawsuit said. McGaugh asked Cotter what happened to them, and Cotter said that the binders had most likely been thrown away.

McGaugh is asking for a jury trial and seeking unspecified damages for injuries including "pain, suffering, mental, and emotional distress," loss of employment opportunities and damage to her professional reputation although she continues to work for the district.

She's also requesting the district pay the cost of the suit, attorney's fees and any further relief the court decides is appropriate.

The other two lawsuits the school is facing were both filed in November 2023. The principal of Hope Middle School is suing the district for racial discrimination he's faced since he started, according to the suit filed in Ingham County Circuit Court. The other suit is a personal injury suit filed in Ingham County Circuit Court, after a young boy was struck by a Holt school bus.

Contact Sarah Atwood at satwood@lsj.com. Follow her on X, @sarahmatwood.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Holt teacher with anxiety over mass shootings sues school over refusal to make accommodations