On August 31, 2012, the Chicago Employment Litigation team, led by Jamey Hiller and including Ryan Brown and Robert Connealy, obtained summary judgment for the firm's school district client in a heavily litigated case in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. See Richard Scott v. Kaneland Community Unit School District #302, et al., (Case No.: 10:-cv-03871).
In June 2010, Plaintiff Richard Scott, a tenured teacher in the Kaneland Community Unit School District, brought suit against the District under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act alleging that he had been discriminated against based upon his Attention Deficit Disorder, Depression, and Anxiety Disorder, and that he was retaliated against by District administrators for reporting his conditions, seeking accommodations from the District, and making formal complaints of discrimination to the EEOC and State of Illinois.
In a 17-page Memorandum Opinion and Order, District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan granted summary judgment in favor of the District on all counts, finding that Plaintiff did not qualify as a protected individual under the ADA because his impairments only affected him in a material way when working as a teacher under one particular supervisor. On the retaliation count, the Court found that the District’s refusal to grant Plaintiff an unspecified general leave of absence had no direct or indirect relationship with his disability or any protected activity—i.e. notifying his employer of his disability or filing a complaint.