SLOAN, Iowa – A former Westwood Community School District employee said in a lawsuit that the district expected him to continue working while he recovered from serious shoulder injuries. He later eliminated his position and fired him for filing claims for damages from employees.
The school district also discriminated against Doug Winters because of his disability by not interviewing him for other jobs, even though he could perform essential functions with or without reasonable accommodation.
“Disability (winter) was a motivating factor in the district’s discrimination,” Winters attorney Amy Beck of Johnston, Iowa, said in the lawsuit filed in Woodbury District Court on Monday.
Westwood Superintendent Jay Lutt could not be reached for comment on Friday. Sioux City attorney Doug Phillips, who represents the Sloan-based district, declined to comment on the allegations.
Winters, who was hired as the district’s transportation director in 2004, injured his right shoulder in 2018 while helping a student board a school bus and later filed a claim for workers’ compensation. Despite the limited freedom of movement and mobility of Winters, the district expected that it would continue to perform its normal duties and make no arrangements, the lawsuit said.
Winters then injured his left shoulder while changing a bus tire and filed a claim for damages from another worker.
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