Court Opinion

ID: 9846966
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:51:15.758731+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:58.006491
License: Public Domain

EVANS, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
The typical ADA case involves the interests of two sides, the employer and the employee. We see lots of these cases. But our case today is not typical because the interests and concerns of others — the first-grade students and their parents— come into play. Although I join Judge Bauer’s opinion for the court, I write separately to highlight a matter that should be considered when this case lands back in the lap of the district judge.
Teaching is a tough job. And teaching a class full of energized six- and seven-yearolds is particularly stressful. A lot is expected of teachers — by the administrators in the district and by the parents of the students.
From the sparse record in this case I assume that the School District of Somerset has high standards. Its Web site proclaims its motto: Learning Today to Succeed Tomorrow. In a district like this, parents quite naturally take an interest in who is teaching their children. And I can’t imagine that many parents would be too pleased to have their first-graders in a classroom taught by a teacher who, to quote the court’s opinion, suffered from “fatigue, anxiety, hypervigilance, tearfulness, racing thoughts, and trouble organizing tasks” plus “inability to concentrate ... retrieve words, make decisions ... focus on the needs of her students ... hypersomnia ... panic attacks, uncontrollable crying, inability to eat, and thoughts of suicide” in the fall of 2005. While I can *979imagine that an employer like UPS might be able to accommodate a delivery person with these kind of issues, I have a hard time understanding how a school district could do the same for a first-grade teacher. This makes me wonder if Ms. Ekstrand, in the context of teaching, could ever establish that she was a “qualified individual with a disability” under the ADA in the fall of 2005 or that an accommodation that would be necessary to ameliorate her condition would be “reasonable.” This issue deserves, I suggest, a close look on remand.