The parents of twin boys withdrew their children from a Tennessee elementary school after officials banned a service dog that would accompany one of their sons to alert of his seizure activity, a new federal lawsuit says.

Staff at Dogwood Elementary School, in Germantown, a Memphis suburb, are accused of complaining that the 9-year-old’s service dog “misbehaved,” according to the lawsuit first reported by The Daily Memphian.

But certain behavior that teachers and administrators complained about were “all forms of (the dog’s) trained behavior to alert to seizure activity,” a complaint filed Nov. 8 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee says.

The 9-year-old, who is nonverbal and has multiple disabilities, including a seizure disorder, was initially allowed to have his dog at school, according to the complaint.

However, in late September, the complaint says the school’s principal said the dog was no longer “welcome.”

The parents “do not feel safe sending (their son) to Dogwood Elementary School and have lost confidence that teachers and staff at Dogwood Elementary School will consistently identify, (respond) to, and record information about (the boy’s) seizures,” the complaint says.

The parents are suing Germantown Municipal School District, accusing officials of violating Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In an emailed statement to McClatchy News, the school district didn’t comment on specifics relating to the student due to restrictions under federal law.

The district said that it is “committed to protecting the rights of all students, including those with disabilities” and “has successfully accommodated service animals in 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 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 bought a service dog for their son, who has a rare condition called microdeletion syndrome, which means he’s missing a part of one of his chromosomes, the complaint says.

The condition causes an array of symptoms, including intellectual disability; a heart defect; physical “abnormalities,” including in his hands; seizures; environmental allergies; and “severe” allergies, according to the complaint.

The complaint says that the parents started to suspect their sons’ teachers weren’t properly identifying his seizure activity, as his “seizures have not presented typically given his diagnoses.”

According to the complaint, the boy displays aggressive behavior when experiencing seizure activity.

The teachers would document this behavior, but they didn’t note much seizure activity, according to the complaint.

How the dog alerts others of the boy’s seizure activity

After the boy’s parents bought him a medical alert service dog from CARES Inc., the child and his family traveled to the Kansas-based nonprofit for “intensive training” and to have their son bond with the dog, the complaint says.

The associated expenses totaled an estimated $10,000, according to the complaint.

The dog alerts others of the boy’s seizures in a few ways, including by pawing or putting his head on the boy’s lap, or another person’s lap, according to the complaint.

The dog might also lick the boy’s hands and face, the complaint says.

If the child doesn’t respond, the dog will seek attention from someone else by “nudging them with his nose” or pacing “back and forth between the other person and (the boy) as a form of alerting,” according to the complaint.

The dog’s “alerting behaviors increase when his 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 about the dog’s medical alerting behavior and commands.

The school is accused of denying the parents’ offer, the complaint says.

Ultimately, the parents started receiving weekly reports about the dog reportedly misbehaving.

However, the complaint contends that the dog “consistently behaves as trained” outside of school.

Teachers and administration reported the dog “misbehaved” in a few ways, including by “weaving through people’s legs and walking around the room,” the complaint says.

But this was the dog’s attempts to alert others of the boy’s seizure activity, according to the complaint.

On Sept. 18, the school’s principal held a meeting with the boy’s parents and told them the dog “was not welcome” at the elementary school, the complaint says.

A few days later, the principal banned the dog from the building, according to the complaint.

In an email, the principal wrote “(the boy) is allowed to have a service animal per board policy. (His dog), however, is not invited back to Dogwood Elementary,” the complaint says.

According to the parents and their legal counsel, the dog cannot easily be replaced by another service animal — as it was “expensive and time-consuming” to train him and involved effort for him to bond with their son.

By denying their child’s service dog, the school district is accused of denying him equal access to the school’s facilities, programs and services and accommodating him, the complaint says.

Now the parents are homeschooling their 9-year-old son and his twin brother, who also has disabilities.

The lawsuit seeks a court order that will allow the boy’s service dog at the school, an unspecified amount in damages and a jury trial.

“We are confident that the court will affirm (the boy’s) right to have his service dog accompany him to school and uphold the principles of equality and access that are fundamental to our education system,” Goode told McClatchy News.

© 2024 McClatchy News
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