Elmhurst D-205 Settles With Teacher Over Mold Issue

Elmhurst IL

15 July, 2021

9:07 AM

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ELMHURST, IL — Elmhurst School District 205 this week settled with a teacher who sued the district, alleging it ignored her severe allergy that she said was caused by rampant mold in her workplace. On Tuesday, the school board unanimously approved the agreement with Nora Fox. Fox, who filed the federal lawsuit in early 2020, formerly worked at Lincoln Elementary School and now is listed as a reading specialist at Jefferson Elementary. Under the settlement, Fox gets 19 sick days back and the school is required to create an Americans With Disabilities Act accommodation request form. The district denied all the allegations in the lawsuit. Recently, the district demolished Lincoln Elementary School and plans to replace it with a new building, a project that is set to be finished next summer. In 2005, Fox started work as a teacher at Lincoln. According to the lawsuit, Lincoln regularly flooded, leading to mold growth and poor air quality. The water damage was so severe that visible mold spores regularly formed on rolls of paper, and, in at least one instance, a mushroom grew out of the floor in a classroom, the lawsuit said. In 2014, Fox's health began to decline, and she was later diagnosed with a severe mold allergy, according to the lawsuit. She said it caused her serious pain, fatigue, rashes and gastrointestinal issues. In 2016, Fox told the school about her diagnosis and asked the school to accommodate her disability by replacing her classroom's air conditioning unit, which had not been cleaned in a dozen years, the lawsuit alleged. The unit was removed from her classroom six weeks later, following repeated requests, the lawsuit said. She also said asked that building-wide mold issues be addressed, contending visible mold was growing throughout the ventilation system. In July 2017, Fox requested that she be moved into a classroom in a newer area of the school with no water damage or mold growth, according to the lawsuit. She said she provided a doctor's note supporting the request. Then-Human Resources Director Jim Woell informed her that the district would not accommodate her request because he said she had "no actual data" to support it, according to the lawsuit. He said he did not have to honor the doctor's note because the doctor had not been in the school, the lawsuit said. When Fox was moved into a reading specialist's position in 2018, she traveled throughout the building, but her assigned workspace was in the reading resource room in Lincoln Elementary's basement. This was the area most impacted by flooding, causing the worst water damage and mold growth, the lawsuit alleged. Fox contended she was unable to work in the basement, so a colleague in a newer section of the building allowed her to use the back corner of her classroom as a workplace. Despite that, Lincoln Principal Jennifer Barnabee ordered Fox to return to the basement by January 2019, the lawsuit said. The principal said the room had been remodeled and that there was no longer a mold issue, Fox said. The district, however, had not conducted any environmental testing to confirm the assertion, with the remodeling involving new carpeting and some drywall but no measures to address systematic flooding and mold, according to the lawsuit. Flooding still happened between the copy and reading resource rooms. In January 2018, Barnabee told a union representative that she would write up Fox for insubordination if she continued to refuse to move into the reading resource room, the lawsuit said. Not long after, the reading resource room flooded, making it uninhabitable, Fox said. At this point, the principal acknowledged Fox could not work there and assigned her to another room in the older section of the building, the lawsuit said. Fox objected and pointed out the doctor's note. After that, Barnabee retaliated against Fox, the lawsuit contended. She required Fox to attend a training on teaching reading, even though Fox was a certified reading specialist, court documents contend. Around the same time, Barnabee began chastising Fox for "incredibly minor infractions," according to the lawsuit. The principal then started meeting with Fox weekly to discuss Fox's goals, something the principal did not implement for the other reading specialist, according to the lawsuit. In early 2019, Barnabee converted the reading resource room into the conference room, although there was no need to move it from a second floor room, the lawsuit said. "Many of these meetings were mandatory, and (Fox's) attendance was required. (Fox) regularly attended for two months despite that spending so much time in Lincoln's water damaged basement was adversely impacting her health," the lawsuit said. Fox's allergic reactions became so severe, she had to take a medical leave of absence for about two weeks, she contended. Under the settlement, Fox agreed to keep its terms confidential. If someone asks about it, she is supposed to answer, "The matter has been resolved." The district also must keep the agreement confidential, unless otherwise required by law. The district posted the settlement online Wednesday.