2 disabled teachers awarded $450k

Boston public schools have been ordered to pay more than $450,000 to two disabled teachers who accused school officials of discriminating against them and making it so difficult to teach that they had to leave their jobs.

The award to teachers Diana Sabella and Mary McTernan, who are unable to stand or walk for long periods, is one of the highest made by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, said Steven Locke, general counsel for the commission, which handed down the rulings this month. The average award is $40,000 to $50,000, he said.

The teachers filed separate complaints in 1997 after reporting to the school system's Office of Equity that they lacked the help they needed to do their jobs, such as the ability to work a flexible schedule and rest during the day. The commission blasted the office for failing to address the complaints and ordered the school department to train administrators each year in the law. State law entitles disabled staff members to reasonable assistance to do their jobs.

''It was apparent from the decisions that the schools essentially neglected their duties and pretty much ignored the requests by the teachers," Locke said yesterday.

The school system has appealed the rulings. Peter M. Kelley, legal adviser for Boston schools, said the system tried to address the teachers' disabilities while making sure that students' needs were met. For example, one school principal did not want to move McTernan to a first-floor classroom because it would have separated a third-grade class from the rest of the third-graders. Typically they share materials and work together.

''We tried to make accommodations that were reasonable," Kelley said. ''We're planning to appeal."

A school principal said administrators are trained in antidiscrimination laws and work to enforce them.

''We do our very best to meet the expectations of us as school administrators, and one of those is knowing the law," said Mildred Ruiz-Allen, principal of Blackstone Elementary.

Sabella, 55, of Boston, who teaches English as a second language, was awarded more than $320,000, including payment for emotional distress and lost wages.

Described by the commission as a ''superior" teacher, Sabella suffers severe foot pain and is unable to stand for more than 15 minutes. For two years at Brighton High, she had a part-time schedule, a classroom near an elevator, and an overhead projector so she would not have to stand at the blackboard.

But in 1996, her job at that school was eliminated, she was moved to three schools, and she struggled to secure part-time positions. According to the ruling, school and union officials said a teacher who wants a part-time position, or a job share, is responsible for finding another teacher with whom to split the position. In 2001, after the third school, Madison Park High, eliminated her part-time post, she took a medical leave and did not return.

The commission ordered Boston public schools to make room for Sabella in the coming school year and to be ''prompt and dutiful" in granting her requests, including giving her a part-time position. But Sabella said in an interview yesterday that she is unsure whether she would return.

''They put me through a lot," said Sabella, who began teaching in public schools in 1985. ''The whole situation has sort of traumatized me."

The state commission awarded more than $130,000 to McTernan, a 64-year-old reading teacher from Peabody, including payment for emotional distress and reimbursement for sick leave.

McTernan, who has a doctorate in education from Boston College, taught from a wheelchair. She contracted polio as a child and still suffers its repercussions, including a weak, unsteady gait. For years she taught at Charlestown High School, where she was allowed to take breaks every 90 minutes, her commute was half an hour, and she parked in a handicapped space next to the school.

But in June 1997 McTernan's job was eliminated and she had trouble getting reassigned. One option, Warren Prescott Elementary School, lacked an elevator, and the principal did not want to assign her to the first-floor classroom because it would put students in the same grade on different floors. Later the principal said he did not know state law required him to accommodate her requests, the ruling said.

She was assigned to Blackstone Elementary School, which doubled her commute time and tired her. She also had additional duties, such as taking students to the bathroom, that made it impossible to rest every 90 minutes. But Boston school officials said it is unreasonable to expect elementary school teachers to take breaks after each 90-minute block of classes. Unlike high school, where students switch classes, teachers typically spend the day with the same group of students.

The Blackstone principal, Ruiz-Allen, said McTernan had a parking space close to the school and access to the school elevator. ''We tried to do everything possible," Ruiz-Allen said.

But McTernan said the parking space was taken by someone else on her first days at the school. Tired and frustrated, McTernan took a medical leave shortly after school started, was out for a year, and returned to Charlestown High, from which she retired in 2001.

''I would have liked to have gone a few more years, but you battle something like that long enough and you just don't do it anymore if you don't have to," McTernan said.

In addition to paying the teachers, Boston schools must pay $20,000 to the state for its ''egregious actions and repeated bad faith" in handling Sabella's case and for failing to address McTernan's complaints. The Office of Equity also must report every disability discrimination complaint it receives for the next five years to the commission, which will monitor the school system.

The commission, the agency in charge of enforcing the state's antidiscrimination laws, receives about 3,500 complaints a year. Roughly 50 to 60 complaints are referred to a hearing officer, who issues a report, Locke said. The rulings can be appealed to the full commission, which is what school officials have done. Rulings of the full commission can also be appealed to Superior Court.