PHILADELPHIA — A private Wynnewood school is facing a federal lawsuit alleging it discriminated against an 11-year-old student with a rare brain disorder.
In a complaint filed June 20 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Bala Cynwyd parents of a minor identified only as O.F., who has an arteriovenous malformation on her brain, sued Friends' Central School and administrators Kelly Bird Pierce, Melody Acinapura and Craig Sellars.
According to the complaint, O.F. enrolled in third grade at FCS Lower School in September 2016, and recently completed fifth grade. The AVM was undiagnosed until March 2017.
The parents alleged that as her condition developed, the school didn’t agree to professionally recommended accommodations for O.F. — such as noise-cancelling headphones or extra time to complete work — and at times declined to meet with the state regional education service agency to develop a support plan. They further said the school improperly excluded O.F. from physical education class, though she was only medically restricted from participating on contact sports.
“FCS’s practice, when faced with a potential new demand for a modification in their practices or policies, a classroom accommodation or an additional support to address a need of O.F.’s related to her disability, was to resist or deflect the demand so that it was either withdrawn or became someone else’s problem,” the complaint alleged.
FCS allegedly rejected O.F.’s attempt to enroll in its middle school, and the parents alleged the school “caused serious harm to O.F., including but not limited to humiliation, frustration, stress, loss of self-esteem, headaches, sleeplessness, and other actual, consequential and non-pecuniary damages.”
The parents alleged FCS violated Title III of the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act by discriminating and excluding O.F. based on her disability, committed retaliation and coercion in violation of the ADA and also alleged breach of contract against FCS as well as breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and a count of breach of fiduciary duty against Acinapura, Pierre and Sellars.
In addition to a jury trial and compensatory, consequential and punitive damages, the family wants the court to force FCS to enroll O.F. in sixth grade for the fall semester and allow accommodations consistent with the ADA, as well as to reimburse the family for its expenses in securing a place for O.F. at an alternative independent school in December.
Representing the family in the matter is the Philadelphia firm of Montgomery Law.
Friends' Central is a Quaker school that was also recently hit with a lawsuit over the alleged bullying of one of its students.