The complaint says security then walked him out in front of his new coworkers
A charter school network fired an autistic teacher about an hour after he asked to use a laptop to take notes, a new lawsuit alleges.
The complaint, filed July 15, 2026 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, names Success Academy Charter Schools and three of its staff, including a human resources business partner sued as an individual. For HR leaders, it is a case study in how quickly an accommodation request can turn into a legal claim.
According to the filing, the worker was hired as an entry-level teacher at $55,000 a year, plus benefits, and was due to start at a school in Queens. He had noted a disability on his application. His trouble began on the second day, the complaint says, during a three-day new-hire orientation at the Javits Center on July 29, 2025, when a staff member reprimanded him for not taking written notes.
He explained that his autism makes handwriting difficult and asked to use a laptop, the filing states. A lead supervisor turned him down, according to the complaint, telling him it "would be distracting to the other employees." The complaint says she opened no interactive dialogue, referred him to no one who evaluates accommodations, and offered no stopgap - she sent him back to the room to keep taking notes by hand.
About an hour later, just after lunch, two people who introduced themselves as HR took him aside, the filing states. He says he assumed they were there to start his formal accommodation request. Instead, they told him he was fired. The reasons, according to the complaint, were "not being an organizational fit" and "not adjusting your behavior following feedback you had been given during the lectures."
The timing felt "strange," the worker says in the filing, landing about an hour after he disclosed his disability and asked for help. When he asked for a document confirming he had requested an accommodation, HR refused, the complaint says. Security then walked him out of the building in front of his new colleagues, according to the filing.
The suit brings disability discrimination and retaliation claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act and New York's state and city human rights laws. It also names the lead supervisor, a school manager and the HR business partner individually, arguing each aided and abetted the firing. Before suing, the worker filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and received a right-to-sue notice, the complaint states.
The alleged sequence lands squarely on the HR playbook: a note-taking accommodation waved off as a distraction, no interactive process, a dismissal about an hour after a protected request, and HR staff driving the decision rather than slowing it down. The complaint also sets the network's public diversity commitments against how it says the worker was treated.
None of allegations have been tested in court, and no judge has ruled on the claims.
