FEDERAL LAWSUIT AGAINST KNOX COUNTY TO HALT GUM CHEWING IN CLASSROOM BROUGHT BY NINTH GRADER
The suit alleges the student has an extreme reaction to the sound of chewing gum and eating food. She’s represented by the same lawyer suing the district over masks.
KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — A student at L&N Stem Academy filed a lawsuit against Knox County for the school’s alleged failure to make reasonable accommodations for a disorder, which she says is causing her to miss around “half of her educational time” and creating physical and emotional exhaustion.
The ninth-grader identified as “Jane Doe” in the federal lawsuit has misophonia, a disorder that triggers extreme reactions to sounds like chewing gum or eating food in her case.
The suit states the pathways in her brain causes Jane Doe “extreme distress upon hearing these sounds, to the point that she cannot tolerate them and must escape.” It also states the condition is made worse by “a migraine headache disorder and hyperacusis, an unusual tolerance to ordinary environmental sounds.”
The suit claims L&N teachers are allowed to pick whether or not to enforce a no eating or chewing gum rule and says the school’s administration “will not recognize the need for all classes to modify their stances of eating food and chewing gum as an accommodation.”
Jane Doe reportedly has also missed time in the classroom “finding an ’empty room,’ or else sitting by herself outside for more than 50% of her educational time, simply to escape the eating and chewing of gum in academic classes,” according to the suit. It also has prevented her from attending an elective called “Genius Hour,” which allows food for the entire 80-minute class as it overlaps with lunchtime. FULL STORY HERE
