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Damages Against Teacher Who Refused to Implement IEP: Why did you put Doe v. Withers on your site? What is the relevance of a case that's 15 years old? Pete responds: Your point is well taken. Doe v. Withers is a 1992 case that was decided in part under United States Code Section 1983. (Thus the 15 year confusion.) During the past month, several people have sent emails, and are looking for information about the case. Doe v. Withers is not posted on the Internet. I have discussed Doe v. Withers in articles on the Wrightslaw site. Several years ago, I wrote an analysis of Doe v. Withers for the Attention Deficit Disorder Forum on CompuServ. Practically
speaking, Doe v. Withers is little more than a simple jury trial
in a civil case that is unreported in the State or Federal Court Reporters.
But Doe v. Withers is also a landmark case. Why is this case so significant? Doe v. Withers was the first special education jury trial and the first special education dollar damages case. Doe v.
Withers is also significant because the child's history teacher (who
was a member of the state General Assembly at the time) refused to follow
the child's IEP, despite being told to do so by several school officials
including the principal, special ed director, and special ed teacher.
This case paved the way for subsequent special ed damage cases, including W. B. v. Matula, a landmark case from the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and Witte v. Clark County, a recent case from the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Your e-mail tells me that we need to do a better job of providing background about the cases we post. We appreciate
your questions. I'm sure other readers had the same questions but did
not write.
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