Date: 11-12-2019

Case Style:

Case Number: 2:19-cv-00253-RWS-JCF

Judge: Richard W. Story

Court: United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (Hall County)

Plaintiff's Attorney:

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Defendant's Attorney: Not Available

Description: Atlanta, GA - The United States of America sued Lanier Technical College on a Americans With Disabilities Act violation theory claiming that the college violated the ADA as a result of a discriminatory termination of an employee.

Lanier Technical College, a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, to resolve the Department’s lawsuit alleging disability discrimination in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The agreement resolves the Department’s complaint alleging that the college terminated an employee on the basis of her disability, multiple sclerosis, after years of service to the college. The complaint further alleges that, after the employee took three days of sick leave one summer, the college removed her from the teaching schedule for an entire school semester, thus reducing her hours and pay to zero, due to her multiple sclerosis.

“Nearly thirty years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, cases like these demonstrate that there is still work to be done to ensure that the hard working people in our district do not face disability discrimination at work or otherwise,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak. “It is of paramount importance that state institutions like Lanier Tech set the example in rooting out discriminatory policies and practices.”

“Individuals should not face unlawful barriers to employment because they have a chronic illness or other disability,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband. “This agreement is another step towards eliminating discriminatory employment barriers for people with disabilities. We applaud Lanier Technical College for committing to change its policies and practices, and compensating its former employee who was unlawfully terminated from her job.”

Under the agreement, Lanier Technical College will revise its policies to ensure compliance with the ADA, implement new policies to ensure it does not discriminate on the basis of disability in its scheduling practices, train staff on the ADA, and file periodic reports with the Department on implementation of the agreement. The college will pay $53,000 in back pay and compensatory damages to its former employee. This matter was based on a referral from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Atlanta District Office, which completed the initial investigation of the facts.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany Johnson handled this case for the Northern District of Georgia jointly with the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

To read the settlement agreement, please click here https://www.ada.gov/lanier_sa.html, and to read the complaint please click here https://www.ada.gov/lanier_complaint.html. For more information on the Civil Rights Division, please visit www.justice.gov/crt. For more information on the ADA, please call the Department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 (TDD 800-514-0383) or visit www.ada.gov.

For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.

Outcome: Settled

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