‘Basic human need’ ignored
City teacher files bias complaint
While most teachers look forward to meeting the mothers and fathers of their students, Bronx educator Dayniah Manderson dreads parent-teacher conferences.
On those days when faculty are required to stay at school well into the evening, Manderson has to abstain from using the rest room for 12 hours or more because her school building doesn’t have facilities that can accommodate her electric wheelchair.
“The basic human need to relieve yourself, [when] you are not able to do that, you put yourself at risk,” Manderson, who teaches English at Mott Hall Community School in Throgs Neck, told the Daily News. “It’s not the most equitable system.”
The 17-year-veteran of the city Education Department, who was born with spinal muscular atrophy, filed a discrimination charge last month with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging the department failed to build her an accessible bathroom for 12 years in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Manderson, 40, says her experience is just the tip of the iceberg in a school system that remains widely inaccessible to scores of staff, families and students with physical disabilities. “It’s limiting in more ways than you can possibly see,” Manderson said.
Hundreds of buildings across the city’s aging school infrastructure lack wheelchair ramps, elevators and accessible bathrooms, data show.
A 2018 analysis by the group Advocates for Children found more than 80% of the city’s roughly 1,800 public school buildings were at least partially inaccessible — meaning classrooms, hallways and bathrooms are out of reach. In nearly 50% of schools there’s no guarantee people with physical disabilities can even get through the front door.
A 2015 federal probe based on the “abysmally low percentage” of accessible city schools ruled the Education Department was in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act and forced officials to come up with a corrective plan. City officials have pledged to infuse $750 million over the next five years to equip school buildings with wheelchair ramps, handrails and accessible bathrooms. City
Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza promised to make half of all public schools at least partially accessible by 2024.
But the coronavirus pandemic halted school construction, further delaying relief for teachers like Manderson, who began teaching at the building where she now works in 2008.
She was dismayed to find none of the staff bathrooms could fit her wheelchair — but decided to do whatever it took to make the arrangement work and keep a job she loves.
For 12 years, Manderson monitored every sip of liquid and every bite of food at work to fend off the urge to use the rest room. She even stopped taking medications that would require her to drink more fluids — a measure her doctors warned could lead to serious health problems.
She asked to leave school early on days she knew she could complete her work from home, but says an administrator denied the request.
In 2018, Manderson submitted a request for a bathroom renovation, according to her discrimination charge. Officials expanded a stall in a rest room near Manderson’s classroom so her wheelchair could fit. But the toilet seat was still too low to the ground, making it impossible for her to safely transfer from her wheelchair.
In response, school construction officials placed a plastic booster on top of the toilet seat. But the plastic seat “is not in a fixed position, can shift during transfer, and places me at risk of falling,” Manderson alleges.
When schools shuttered in March to stem the spread of coronavirus, Manderson still didn’t have a usable bathroom at school, she says. The inaccessible bathroom isn’t the only barrier. The fire safety room where Manderson is supposed to evacuate to in an emergency is clogged with school supplies, she charges.
And beyond the obstacles in her building, Manderson says accessibility barriers in city schools have constrained her career choices. An Education Department spokeswoman said the agency is reviewing Manderson’s complaint. Construction is halted “with extremely rare exceptions,” the spokeswoman added.
Manderson hopes officials will make the bathroom fix before teachers return to class this fall so she can work without worrying about her safety.
“I, like everyone else, look forward to getting back to school to meet my students in person,” she said. “But for me, teaching in my classroom puts me in greater danger than teaching from home.”