The Courts

U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
Coach was not Discriminated Against
Due to her having Weight Loss Surgery

Ruling: A PE teacher/coach’s summertime weight loss surgery recovery period was too short for her to claim discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Tanya Lyons v. Katy ISD, No. 19-20293. Issued June 29. Ordered “published.”

Lyons had been a PE teacher who coached two to three girls’ sports a year at KISD’s Mayde Creek Junior High for several years when, during the summer of 2014 — when school was out — she had lap band weight loss surgery.

Shortly after her surgery, her principal told her that he was transferring her from teaching PE to being an in-school suspension (ISS) teacher, but would still have some coaching duties. The record also noted that Lyons’ — due to restrictions placed by her doctor after the surgery — was not able to attend required summer sports camps.

When school started in August 2014, Lyons filed a grievance over her reassignment to ISS. Shortly afterward, her responsibility to coach girls’ basketball was removed as one of her coaching assignments.

Lyons ultimately filed a federal lawsuit alleging ADA violations asserting that she had been discriminated and retaliated against, and harassed, due to ramifications over her having surgery, her filing a grievance over her being assigned to ISS, and her later filing an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint.

Lyons’ overall claim was that she was discriminated against under provisions of the ADA that allow suits to proceed based on claims that an individual was perceived to be “regarded as disabled” instead of provisions allowing suits based on an “actual disability.”

Upheld the Dismissal
A three-member Fifth Circuit panel, in this decision, upheld the dismissal of Lyons’ suit on findings that:
  • The ADA disallows discrimination suits arising from impairments that are “transitory” (lasting less than six months) and “minor.” It took only two months for Lyons to undergo, and recover from, her surgery.

  • KISD was able to show that it had legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons for taking the actions that it did. The justices noted that the principal:

    -- Told Lyons it was okay for her to miss the summer sports camps.

    -- Told Lyons that the reason he was reassigning her to teach ISS was because the school’s current ISS teacher suddenly quit over the summer, and he felt a coach would be a good fit in terms of effective classroom management.

    -- Assured Lyons shortly after she had her weight loss surgery that while the move to ISS could help her with any recovery she might be going through, it was not a determining factor for the reassignment.

    -- Was told by Lions late in the 2013-14 school year that she did not want her future coaching duties to include basketball because it was a mid-year sport that stretched over the winter break.