Irrational Ebola fears led officials to ban girl from school, ADA suit alleges
A Connecticut dad claims in a federal lawsuit that school officials in Milford, Connecticut, violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when they kept his daughter home from school because of irrational fears about Ebola.
The suit by Stephen Opayemi says his 7-year-old daughter was in Nigeria where she was a flower girl in a wedding and she had no contact with any Ebola patients, report the Hartford Courant, Reuters, the Connecticut Post and the Associated Press. The girl was in the country between Oct. 2 and Oct. 13. School officials want her to stay home until Nov. 3.
Ebola sickened 19 people, killing seven of them, in Nigeria during an outbreak which began in July and was swiftly isolated, according to the BBC. The last reported case in the country was discovered on Sept. 5, and the World Health Organization declared the country free from the Ebola virus in a “spectacular success story.”
The school has sent a tutor to the girl’s home for 90 minutes of instruction each weekday since last Wednesday, the Hartford Courant says.
Lawyer Gary Phelan of Stratford, Connecticut, told the Hartford Courant that the suit was filed to get Opayemi’s daughter back in school and to deter other towns considering similar action. The family contends in the suit that they were told by the Milford health director that the primary reason the school had decided to bar the little girl from school was not because of fear of infection, but rather “due to the rumors, panic and climate at Meadowside [Elementary School],” reports the Connecticut Post.
The city attorney told several publications that he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.
Updated at 2:28 to add more information about the Nigerian outbreak and info from the lawsuit.
