Background: Dogwood Elementary School, Germantown, Tenn. (Google Maps). Inset: Germantown Municipal School District principal Jessica Woody (Facebook).
The parents of a Tennessee third grader with multiple disabilities are suing their school district for refusing to allow the child’s service dog on campus.
Douglas and Sarah Dietz filed a federal lawsuit against the Germantown Municipal School District on behalf of their child, identified in court filings as M.D., who was enrolled at Dogwood Elementary School.
M.D. is a 9-year-old boy who has a twin brother, N.D. Both boys have profound disabilities that qualify for legal protection under Section 504 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the lawsuit says, and both are nonverbal. N.D. has Down syndrome and intellectual disability, and M.D. has an extremely rare chromosomal condition. M.D. has both an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and an Individual Health Plan (IHP) protected by federal law. The twins also have two younger siblings who also attend school in the district.
In their filing, the Dietzes say that they would see M.D. having between 10 and 15 seizures each day when their son was at home, but that M.D.’s teachers reported very little seizure activity when he was at school.
To address the seizures, the parents opted to travel to Kansas and purchase Herbie, a service dog, in the spring of 2024. Herbie was trained to help M.D. live both as “safely and as independently as possible,” the lawsuit says, and to alert others when M.D. is having a seizure by several different methods, the lawsuit says.
As part of Herbie’s training, Sarah Dietz recorded her voice giving Herbie commands, then incorporated the recordings onto an assisted communication device that M.D. uses regularly, the complaint says.
The family explained how service dogs are trained to protect those with seizures disorders:
Medical alert service dogs are service animals that are trained to alert their handler and others when a person is having medical complications including but not limited to neurological disorders such as seizures, put their body between the seizing person and the floor to prevent injury, and lie next to or across the legs of the seizing person to provide a presence that can calm the seizing person. Medical alert dogs will also stand adjacent to the seizing person in order to alert others that the animal’s handler is currently having trouble or the person’s internal chemistry is changing and will require assistance in the immediate future. Medical alert dogs are also trained to alert others to changes in a person’s blood sugar and to assist people with mobility issues.
The family said in its filing that Herbie is trained to either put his paw or his head on M.D.’s or another person’s lap if the boys is having a seizure, and if he is not receiving proper response for his alerting, he will nudge with his nose and pace back and forth with increased speed if his behavior is not acknowledged.
The Dietz family said that they offered to provide training to the school district at no cost to the district, but that the district “declined all training.”
According to the family, Jessica Woody, principal of Dogwood Elementary School, called the parents into a meeting in September at which Woody said Herbie “was not welcome” at the school. According to the filing, a weekly report prepared by school personnel indicated that Herbie rarely stayed near M.D., often approached other students, ate others’ food, sniffed others, ran around, and refused to follow commands. The Dietzes said that Woody told them their son could have a service dog — but that it could not be Herbie, because of Herbie’s behavior.
The parents, however, argued in the complaint that Herbie’s behavior is not at all problematic, and argued that the school’s refusal to complete training may be what underlies their frustrations. They said when they raised these concerns to Woody, her response was, “I really feel that all the reasons Herbie is not invited back have been fully covered.”
They noted in their lawsuit that at the meeting, Woody, “inexplicably said words to the effect that Herbie would behave if they were present,” and suggested, “Perhaps Ms. Woody knew that Herbie behaves as trained when given the opportunity to hear proper commands and when responded to when alerting.”
The parents argued in their complaint that, “What seems to be lost on Ms. Woody and Defendant is that Herbie is not fungible.”
“Service dogs are expensive and highly trained to bond with the disabled individual they support,” they argued.
The family brings multiple claims for violation of federal disability law and ask that the court order the school to allow Herbie to accompany M.D. to school.
You can read the full complaint here.
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