Conaway v. Detroit Public Schools Community District

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedDecember 17, 2021
Docket2:21-cv-12253
StatusUnknown

This text of Conaway v. Detroit Public Schools Community District (Conaway v. Detroit Public Schools Community District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Conaway v. Detroit Public Schools Community District, (E.D. Mich. 2021).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION

NICOLE CONAWAY,

Plaintiff, Case No. 21-cv-12253

v. U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE

GERSHWIN A. DRAIN DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS CMTY. DIST.,

Defendant. _______________________________/ OPINION AND ORDER DENYING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR A PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION [#2] AND DISMISSING PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME AS MOOT [#17] I. INTRODUCTION On September 24, 2021, Plaintiff Nicole Conaway filed the instant action against Defendant Detroit Public Schools Community District seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. ECF No. 2, PageID.70–71. Plaintiff seeks a court order enjoining Defendant from requiring her to teach at one of Defendant’s facilities for the 2021–22 school year. ECF No. 1, PageID.2. Specifically, Plaintiff asserts claims against Defendant for denying her leave under the Family Medical Leave Act, 29 U.S.C. § 2601 et seq. (“FMLA”), and for Defendant allegedly violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq. (“ADA”) for not allowing Plaintiff to teach from her home full- time. Presently before the Court is Plaintiff’s Motion for a Preliminary Injunction. ECF No. 2, PageID.70. Defendant responded in opposition to Plaintiff’s Motion

on October 19, 2021. ECF No. 12, PageID.206. Plaintiff submitted her Reply brief on December 2, 2021, following two extensions of time. ECF No. 22, PageID.447. For the reasons discussed below, the Court will DENY Plaintiff’s

Motion for a Preliminary Injunction.

II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND The instant action comes before the Court amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March 2020, Defendant voluntarily closed its schools as the virus spread across the country. ECF No. 12, PageID.213. On April 2, 2020, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered all schools across the state to temporarily shut down for the remainder of the 2019–20 school year. See Mich. Exec. Order No. 2020-35.

Defendant held in-person summer school classes throughout the 2020 summer after the State lifted the school closure order in June 2020. ECF No. 12, PageID.213.

On August 27, 2020 the Detroit Federation of Teachers (“DFT”) and Defendant agreed to provide teachers the option of remote teaching or in-person

instruction for the 2020–21 school year. ECF No. 12, PageID.213. Many DFT members—including Plaintiff—chose remote teaching. Id. The pandemic’s daily death toll peaked in the winter of 2020–21. As thousands of people died from COVID-19 complications every day, thousands of

Detroit Public School students went unaccounted for because of the pandemic’s disruption. See Moriah Balingit, Unprecedented numbers of students have disappeared during the pandemic. Schools are working harder than ever to find

them., (Feb. 25, 2021, 11:20 PM), https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/pan demic-schools-students-missing/2021/02/25/f0b27262-5ce8-11eb-a976- bad6431e03e2_story.html (“A month into the [2020–21] school year last fall, 8,000 [Detroit Public Schools] students were still missing.”). At the pandemic’s

darkest hour, light broke through in the form of COVID-19 vaccines. By spring 2021, COVID-19 vaccines were widely available across the City of Detroit. In May 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded its emergency

authorization of COVID-19 vaccines to children 12 and over. Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: FDA Authorizes Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for Emergency Use in Adolescents in Another Important Action in Fight Against Pandemic, U.S. FOOD & DRUG ADMIN., (May 10, 2021),

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19- update-fda-authorizes-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine-emergency-use. When Defendant and the DFT engaged in negotiations again over schools reopening that

summer, the pandemic looked dramatically different from a year earlier. On July 15, 2021, Defendant and DFT agreed to teachers returning to teach at Defendant’s facilities for the 2021–22 academic year. See ECF No. 12-1,

PageID.233, 239. The 2021–22 labor agreement between the parties requires teachers to help “fully reopen all schools with immediacy” and prioritize efforts that meet demands “for in-person learning across all District schools.” Id. at

PageID.232. The parties also agreed to create the Detroit Virtual School (“DVS”) to “provide[] students who flourish in virtual learning environments with greater opportunities for full-time virtual learning.” ECF No. 12-1, PageID.239. The DVS program allows teachers to provide remote instruction to students over virtual

learning platforms like Microsoft Teams, PowerSchool, and other technology- based education systems. Id. at PageID.240. DVS teachers are required to “report in-person five (5) school days per week, at assigned District designated work locations,”1 with preference given to applicants “with demonstrated medical

conditions.” Id. Teacher selections for DVS are subject to the program’s scheduling needs and enrollment. Id.

In early August 2021, Plaintiff—a mathematics and science teacher— applied late to teach in the DVS program. ECF No. 1, PageID.6. Her application

1 At the November 16, 2021 hearing, Defendant’s counsel explained how teaching at a Detroit Public School to provide virtual instruction allows teachers to access resources they otherwise cannot at home. DVS teachers can also offer coaching and mentoring opportunities from the DVS building to students who were otherwise not afforded those opportunities virtually last school year. included a physician’s note that emphasized she “would be a good candidate for virtual teaching” because her allergies and asthma increase her risk to COVID-19

health complications.2 ECF No. 1-6, PageID.36. Plaintiff’s doctor also emphasized that she “is very able to teach classes virtually,” but not for “in-person classroom instruction.” ECF No. 12-1, PageID.261. Defendant denied Plaintiff’s

application on August 31, 2021 because the DVS program had no vacancies for mathematics or science teachers when she applied. ECF No. 1, PageID.2; ECF No. 12, PageID.215. On September 7, 2021, the DVS program received an influx of student registrations. Id. That influx led to Defendant hiring additional DVS

teachers, although all vacant positions are now filled. Id. On September 1, 2021, Plaintiff filed an ADA accommodation request to

teach remotely from her home because of her allergies and asthma increasing her risk to COVID-19 health complications. ECF No. 1, PageID.7. Just over three weeks later, Plaintiff filed an ADA complaint with the Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) on September 23, 2021. ECF No. 2, PageID.83. Defendant denied Plaintiff’s ADA accommodation request to teach from home fulltime, offering her an alternative accommodation of teaching in the DVS program—which Plaintiff originally requested. ECF No. 12-1, PageID.250.

2 Plaintiff confirmed that she is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 at the November 16, 2021, in-person hearing. The response to Plaintiff’s ADA Accommodation request considered Plaintiff’s health care provider’s note and teaching responsibilities. Id. Defendant’s

proposed accommodation permitted Plaintiff to teach from home three days a week as well. Plaintiff rejected Defendant’s accommodation, instead insisting that she work from home full-time “until [her] physician determines otherwise.” ECF No.

12-1, PageID.254. While Defendant reviewed Plaintiff’s ADA claim, she missed the first week

of in-person instruction. ECF No. 1-11, PageID.48.

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Conaway v. Detroit Public Schools Community District, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/conaway-v-detroit-public-schools-community-district-mied-2021.