04-09-2025
Angel Tudor worked as a Whitehall Central School District (WCSD) teacher. She had developed PTSD from severe workplace harassment at a prior job. She asked WCSD to allow her to take two 15-minute breaks during the day in addition to lunch as an accommodation of her PTSD. The district allowed her to take one break in the morning, but Tudor alleged she did not have permission to do so in the afternoon. During the discovery process, Tudor responded that she could perform the essential functions of her job. Still, she had done so “under great duress and harm” to her “emotionally and physically.”
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals evaluated whether WCSD was required to accommodate Tudor. The ADA requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for qualified employees’ known physical and mental disabilities absent undue hardship. This obligation “extends beyond reasonable accommodations” tied to performing the essential functions of a job. The statute expressly requires modifications and adjustments that allow a disabled employee to “enjoy equal benefits and privileges” of employment. Employers must provide reasonable accommodations to enable qualified individuals to perform their primary job functions “by minimizing disability-related pain and suffering.” Making an employee work with disability-related pain and suffering “clearly” impacts the “terms” and “conditions” of their employment. The court further wrote that “minimizing pain and suffering” in the performance of essential job functions is integral to make it “possible, practical, or easy” for the employee to perform them. Impossibility is not the standard for assessing whether an employer must accommodate the employee. This decision aligns with holdings in the First Circuit, D.C. Circuit, and the Sixth Circuit. The court noted that the ADA limits an employer’s obligation to accommodate in the following ways. An employee must have actual disabilities that impact the terms, conditions, or privileges of employment and accommodation requests must be reasonable.