A disabled former first grade teacher in Rhea County has accused administrators at Spring City Elementary School of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act with “harassment, bullying and retaliation,” according to a new lawsuit.
Martha McClendon, who has been diagnosed with lupus, scleroderma, fibromyalgia, depression and ADHD, earned tenure in her “dream” job, according to the civil rights lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court. School administrators at first were supportive and accommodating in providing a safe work environment until McClendon reported problems to them, and harassment allegedly began to increase rather than improve.
The suit names the Rhea County School District and the elementary school as defendants, claiming federal ADA violations, and retaliation and discrimination based on disability under Tennessee law. It seeks court costs, attorney fees, unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and either reinstatement or bonus pay.
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School officials didn’t immediately respond to emails and phone messages left Wednesday and Thursday seeking comment on the suit.
Problems started in early 2023 when McClendon “began to recognize her exclusion or otherwise isolation from important school-related meetings,” the suit said. “There were multiple occasions throughout the 2023 school year where plaintiff (McClendon) was subjected to ‘bullying-style’ harassment, including leaving her students out of events and having things thrown at her door.”
New leadership was installed at the school, and McClendon felt comfortable reporting the issues to her superiors, but that led to increased harassment, the suit said. A variety of school staff began to comment on McClendon’s physical ailments and the medication used to treat them. McClendon has also taken leave for what was diagnosed as panic disorder associated with the harassment she allegedly endured, according to the suit.
Problems persisted through the end of the 2023 school year and continued into the 2023-24 school year, according to the suit.
When the lights in her classroom went out, McClendon was allegedly accused by the school maintenance director of “breaking her light switch, despite barely having the strength in her hands to zip her own coat,” the suit said.
That incident was followed by a visit from a school therapist, who is also the wife of the school’s vice principal, the suit said. The therapist allegedly asked questions about McClendon’s medical diagnoses, medications and mental health but then disclosed the medical information to administrators in violation of federal privacy laws.
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The information disclosed inflamed the situation and led to more problems that allegedly included multiple instances of McClendon being “verbally assaulted,” the suit contends, and in December 2023, more teachers joined in what McClendon described as an “onslaught of harassment,” and “at least one teacher began to forcibly and physically ram into” McClendon.
After McClendon filed paperwork for Family Medical Leave Act time off and raised issues about a headset she required because of her disability, school administrators allegedly issued an email to all teachers that said any teacher found using a headset would be “written up for a violation,” the suit said.
After McClendon obtained leave for her ailments, she experienced a “troubling interaction” with school system officials.
“While cleaning her classroom to verify its organization during FMLA leave, she was asked to leave the school and turn in her badge and key,” the suit states.
McClendon did so, calling her husband to pick her up, but a police officer arrived to escort her from school property, the suit said. Afterward, McClendon and her husband were contacted by law enforcement regarding the incident and told that she had been reported as “trespassing” and was at the school after being suspended from her job.
McClendon contends she was due to be notified of any suspension as a tenured teacher.
“Considering all of the troubling drama associated with these incidents, plaintiff (McClendon) no longer feels safe living in her hometown,” the suit said.
Defendants in federal cases typically have 21 days to file a response in court.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.
