Parents of twins removed their children from a Tennessee elementary school after officials banned a service dog from accompanying one of their children to alert about his seizure activity, a new federal lawsuit says.
Staff at Dogwood Elementary School in the Memphis suburb of Germantown are accused of complaining that the 9-year-old boy’s service dog “misbehaved,” according to the lawsuit first reported by The Daily Memphian.
But certain behaviors that teachers and administrators complained about were “all forms of (the dog’s) trained behavior to alert to seizure activity,” says a complaint filed Nov. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
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According to the complaint, the 9-year-old boy, who is nonverbal and has multiple disabilities, including a seizure disorder, was initially allowed to have his dog at school.
However, in late September, the complaint says the school’s principal said the dog was no longer “welcome.”
Parents “do not feel safe sending (their child) to Dogwood Elementary School and have lost confidence that the teachers and staff at Dogwood Elementary School will consistently identify, (respond to), and record information about (the child’s) seizures.” child),” the complaint says. says.
Parents are suing the Germantown Municipal School District, accusing officials of violating Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In a statement emailed to McClatchy News, the school district did not comment on specific details related to the student due to restrictions under federal law.
The district said it is “committed to protecting the rights of all students, including those with disabilities” and “has successfully welcomed service animals into its schools for several years and will continue to do so in the future.”
The district denied violating Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA.
Janet H. Goode, an attorney representing the boy’s parents, told McClatchy News in an emailed statement that “disability discrimination has no place in our schools, and every student deserves a safe and supportive learning environment.” “.
“We are committed to holding the Germantown Municipal School District accountable for its blatant failure to comply with federal anti-discrimination laws,” Goode said.
In the spring of 2024, the parents purchased a service dog for their son, who suffers from a rare disease called microdeletion syndrome, which means he is missing a part of one of his chromosomes, according to the complaint.
The condition causes a variety of symptoms, including intellectual disability; a heart defect; physical “abnormalities,” including in his hands; convulsions; environmental allergies; and “severe” allergies, according to the complaint.
The complaint says parents began to suspect that their children’s teachers were not properly identifying their seizure activity, since their “seizures were not typically presenting given their diagnosis.”
According to the complaint, the child displays aggressive behavior when experiencing seizure activity.
Teachers documented this behavior, but did not notice much seizure activity, according to the complaint.
How the dog alerts others to the child’s seizure activity
After the boy’s parents purchased him a medical alert service dog from CARES Inc., the boy and his family traveled to the Kansas-based nonprofit for “intensive training” and for their son to bonded with the dog, the complaint says.
Associated expenses totaled an estimated $10,000, according to the complaint.
The dog alerts others to the child’s seizures in various ways, including by touching or placing its head on the child’s or another person’s lap, according to the complaint.
The dog may also lick the child’s hands and face, the complaint says.
If the child does not respond, the dog will seek the attention of another person by “poking the child with its nose” or pacing “back and forth between the other person and (the child) as a form of alert,” according to the complaint. .
The dog’s “alert behaviors increase when its alerts are ignored,” the complaint says.
Dog not allowed at school.
According to the lawsuit, the boy’s parents offered to provide free training to the school on the dog’s behavior and medical alert commands.
The school is accused of rejecting the parents’ offer, according to the complaint.
Eventually, parents began receiving weekly reports about the dog’s bad behavior.
However, the complaint maintains that the dog “consistently behaves as trained” outside of school.
Teachers and administration reported that the dog “misbehaved” in several ways, including “walking between people’s legs and walking around the room,” the complaint says.
But these were the dog’s attempts to alert others to the child’s seizure activity, according to the complaint.
On Sept. 18, the school principal met with the boy’s parents and told them the dog was “not welcome” at the elementary school, according to the complaint.
A few days later, the principal banned the dog from entering the building, according to the complaint.
In an email, the principal wrote “(the child) is allowed to have a service animal per board policy. (Your dog), however, is not invited to return to Dogwood Elementary School,” the complaint states.
According to the parents and their legal counsel, the dog cannot be easily replaced by another service animal, since training it was “expensive and time-consuming” and required an effort to bond with their child.
By denying his son the service dog, the school district is accused of denying him equal access to and accommodation of the school’s facilities, programs and services, the complaint says.
Now the parents homeschool their 9-year-old son and his twin brother, who also has disabilities.
The lawsuit seeks a court order allowing the boy’s service dog at school, an unspecified amount in damages and a jury trial.
“We are confident that the court will affirm (the child’s) right to have his service dog accompany him to school and uphold the principles of equality and access that are fundamental to our educational system,” Goode told McClatchy News.
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