Photo by Erin Nelson
The Vestavia Hills Board of Education office
Former Pizitz Middle School teacher Samantha Baulch has sued Vestavia Hills City Schools, claiming the school district failed to provide her reasonable accommodations to protect her from contracting COVID-19.
Baulch, a cancer survivor who is deemed immunocompromised, also claims her contract was not renewed because she raised concerns about the school system’s lack of regard for following protocols during the pandemic.
Baulch, who taught seventh grade civics and geography at the school for two years, filed the suit March 31 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
She overcame a form of thyroid cancer after being diagnosed in February 2018. Because of that, she is medically classified as an immunocompromised person, which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, puts her at higher risk of serious illness if she were to contract COVID-19.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has determined that a medical condition that creates a high risk of a severe COVID-19 illness meets the criteria for protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Baulch claimed in her lawsuit that she sought several ADA accommodations prior to the start of the 2020-21 school year. While Pizitz originally approved her request to opt out of non-instructional in-person interaction, Baulch claimed in the lawsuit that approval was rescinded after the first few weeks of the school year.
In mid-January, a student told Baulch she had contracted the virus. However, Baulch claimed the school system never asked for her seating chart to do contact tracing. Since the exposure happened while students were eating, an unmasked activity, the entire class would have been eligible for tracing and quarantine, but no student was put into quarantine, Baulch said.
Baulch filed a complaint with the Alabama Education Association following the incident.
On Feb. 2, Baulch was told by another student of an exposure to the virus, she said. Once again, she said in the lawsuit, Pizitz failed to follow exposure protocols.
In January, matters were further complicated when Baulch suffered a stress reaction in her foot and was required to wear a “boot” that limited her mobility. Despite this, she was asked to continue to go back and forth between her classroom and an “overflow space” in the hall, adding a “strain on her foot that her doctor had advised against,” she said in the lawsuit.
To limit the gathering of students in large numbers in indoor spaces, the school system had the cafeteria closed several days a week and students could eat in their classrooms. Due to the smaller size of some rooms, some students were placed in the hallway in an overflow area, which meant staff or substitutes had to supervise them.
Baulch said she asked her principal at the time, Chris Pennington, for a larger class space so as to not have overflow, but when he was not responsive, she again went to the AEA. Baulch said a large science classroom was available during at least one and possibly both of her overflow periods.
Baulch’s AEA representative, named in the lawsuit as Dana Clement, warned her she was a “nontenured teacher who was openly initiating complaints challenging school practices regarding COVID-19 and that her relationship with the administration at Pizitz Middle was deteriorating as a result.” According to the lawsuit, Clement told Baulch she should take time off under the Family Medical Leave Act to avoid being fired.
In the second half of the school year, Pennington stopped visiting Baulch as often as before and was often “terse” with her in their interactions, Baulch claimed in the lawsuit. On May 14, the district’s personnel director, Meredith Hanson, told Baulch that Pennington, who now has a central office role, had recommended her contract not be renewed. In a meeting between Baulch and Pennington, she said he only recited the phrase, “the school is going to go in a different direction,” she claimed in the lawsuit.
Hanson told Baulch the decision could not be based on job performance and assured her she had no derogatory remarks in her personnel file, Baulch claimed in the lawsuit. Baulch’s attorney, Artur Davis, said she is an “exemplary” teacher, noting the plaudits she has won throughout her career. In Pennington’s sole visit to her classroom during the 2020-21 school year, he “praised her teaching skills and her dynamic engagement with her class,” and her written evaluations in 2020 and 2021 “reflected a high level of achievement,” Baulch said in her lawsuit.
Baulch is seeking back pay, front pay and lost benefits. Davis sent the following statement to the Vestavia Voice:
"Samantha Baulch was not just a good teacher, but an exceptional teacher,” Davis said. “Vestavia Hills City Schools should be embarrassed by Pizitz Middle's decision to punish her for standing up for the best interests of her children during what was the deadliest phase of the COVID pandemic. This lawsuit gives Dr. Freeman and the VHCS board a chance to do right by Mrs. Baulch."
Whit McGhee, the director of communication for Vestavia Hills City Schools, said the school system had not yet been served with the lawsuit and would wait to issue a statement until then. The school system is facing another lawsuit filed by two parents, Brian Malcom and Watts Ueltschey, claiming the school district did not comply with Alabama’s Open Records Act regarding the two men’s request for records related to the district’s COVID-19 policies.
