A former faculty professor is suing the Los Angeles Community College District, alleging she was forced to resign earlier this year because her supervisors would not accommodate her with a schedule allowing her to care for her seriously ill husband at the family home in Ohio.
Darlene Levy-Potter’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit allegations include wrongful termination, associational disability discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress and failure to accommodate and engage in the interactive process. Levy-Potter seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
“Defendants’ callous disregard for plaintiff’s request for accommodation after 19 years of dedicated service was heartless and cruel,” the suit states.
An LACCD representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Thursday.
Levy-Potter was hired as a faculty professor for Los Angeles City College’s nursing program in September 2005, and nine years later, she shifted to an adjunct faculty role where she supervised nursing students rotating for an inpatient psychiatric unit, earning her $12,000 per semester and brought her generous student reviews, the suit states.
Levy-Potter relocated to Ohio about this time and continued working at LACC on an adjusted schedule without any administration objections, according to the suit. However, in September 2021, the plaintiff’s husband, Robert Potter, developed a medical condition characterized by one’s nerves and arteries becoming entangled over the brain or spinal cord, requiring 24-hour catheterization, the suit states.
Levy-Potter was granted a part-time schedule that in 2016 through 2022 allowed her to be her husband’s caretaker when she was in Ohio and employ alternative caregivers during the three-week increments she taught at LACC, the suit states.
However, in July 2023, the interim nursing director pressured Levy-Potter to quit, saying no one would begrudge the plaintiff for needing to be with her husband rather than at work, according to the suit, which further states that a month later, the same director sent the plaintiff an unacceptable schedule that would have prevented her from caring for her spouse.
The boss denied Levy-Potter’s request for a workable schedule and gave her position to a younger, less qualified professor, the suit states.
“At this point, plaintiff was put in an impossible situation,” the suit states.” By refusing to put plaintiff on the schedule and failing to engage in a meaningful interactive process, defendants effectively terminated plaintiff’s employment.”
Levy-Potter, who resigned in January, has suffered lost wages, damage to her career and reputation, depression, anxiety, fatigue and loss of sleep, according to the suit.