A lawsuit says Nazareth Area School District failed to accommodate Autumn Moser, who failed English due to a head injury.
A Northampton County judge refused to allow a Nazareth Area High School senior to walk "ceremonially" at graduation while she makes up a class she needs to get her diploma.
According to a lawsuit filed Friday, Bushkill Township resident Autumn Moser failed English due to a concussion she suffered in gym class March 4. The suit says she banged her head on a metal rack while doing crunches.
The school nurse told her to take ibuprofen, but when symptoms persisted a week later she went to her doctor who diagnosed the concussion.
The lawsuit filed by Autumn's parents, Stacy and Robert Moser, says the school district failed to set up a plan to accommodate her injury and ease her back into school with half days and time extensions for tests and projects.
The suit says those accommodations were denied because she was only a few months away from graduating.
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Since the district failed to help her, her parents insisted that she be allowed the "once-in-a-lifetime" experience of walking in graduation even though she would not be allowed to take her diploma until she made up the English class.
Northampton County Judge Paula Roscioli denied the Mosers' injunction request on Friday, so Autumn did not walk in the ceremony Friday evening.
"I believe the position of the judge sums up the matter," said Superintendent Dennis Riker in an email Monday.
According to the lawsuit, Autumn became "emotionally distraught" after the school district refused to allow her to walk at graduation. This forced her parents to seek immediate medical treatment for her, the suit says.
"For the district to now deny her the opportunity of walking with her class at graduation when it is possible that the district may be wholly or at the very least partially responsible for her injury is the height of audacity," wrote attorney Elizabeth J. Kapo, who filed the lawsuit for the Mosers.
"From a public policy perspective, the district cannot be permitted to treat its students in such a callous manner when it is charged with providing education and also federally-mandated educational assistance to students with disabilities," she wrote.
Check out our complete graduation coverage at lehighvalleylive.com/graduation.
Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.