I was initially hired for the job 2 years ago (a outdoor nature day camp at a house of worship) but the camp was shut down due to Covid. Fast forward to last year when I reinterviewed and was offered the job again. I accepted and was excited because I hadn’t been able to work in about 6 years due to disability. It seemed like a good way to get back into working with kids, which I absolutely love. I’m overqualified for the job and they said they were thrilled to have someone who could institute arts programming on top of teaching.
I was filling out the very invasive medical paperwork a few months later and put down that I needed an accommodation. In the case of extreme temps (90+ but fairly rare in this area) I might need to go indoors and cool off for up to 10 minutes if I felt like heat stroke was coming on. Some of my new meds made me incredibly sensitive to heat. I hadn’t mentioned it during the interviews or anything because I didn’t know it was an issue until it started getting hot and I started having fainting spells.
The Director called me immediately and was like an entirely different person. Very sarcastic and rude. She told me it was a real hardship that I wouldn’t be capable of doing my job and being reliable . I said it might not even be necessary to use this accommodation at any point, I was trying to let her know just in case. Also, are teachers not allowed bathroom breaks? Are none of the children going to need to be indoors from time to time? She told me she would call me back.
When she did call, 2 days later, she was very sharp and said while she COULD make this accommodation she didn’t want the other staff to see it being done because it “would send the wrong message.” She fired me and said she was upset that now she had to scramble to find someone else.
The whole thing was so disappointing and humiliating. But I also think I dodged a bullet.