As Georgia kids head back to school in muggy, 90-degree weather, an Atlanta-based federal appeals court has revived a school bus driver’s lawsuit that claims Clayton County school officials violated federal law by not giving her an air-conditioned bus.
Edith Jeanette Hill, who was placed on unpaid leave in 2009 after she complained she was having difficulty breathing in the hot bus due to a medical condition, sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act. A district court judge tossed the case on summary judgment, but a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit revived the suit on Friday. The judges held that there were factual disputes about whether the school district had reasonably accommodated Hill’s request for a new bus, thereby setting the case up for a jury trial.
