The children of a 40-year-old Mexican American Opportunity Foundation teacher who sued the organization over the COVID- related, 2020 death of their mother have dropped the remaining two claims in their lawsuit.
Attorneys for 20-year-old Lizbeth Bolanos and her 18-year-old brother, Andrew, filed court papers on Feb. 23 with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis asking that the complaint be dismissed "with prejudice," meaning it cannot be refiled. The two are the offspring of the late Magdalena Carrasco of East Los Angeles.
The pleadings do not state if a settlement was reached or if the plaintiffs are not pursuing the case for other reasons
In May 2022, the judge dismissed a wrongful death claim from the suit, leaving as the remaining causes of action those for failure to engage in the good-faith interactive process and failure to accommodate a disability. MAOF attorneys previously filed court papers asking that those allegations be dismissed as well, arguing that when Carrasco was asked to return to work, she "enthusiastically said yes and never asked for any accommodation despite the fact that she had diabetes."
Carrasco also told her site supervisor that she was happy to be back at work because she found it hard to work from home with her own two children going to school online, which impacted her ability to use the internet, the MAOF attorneys stated in their court papers.
MAOF provides child care and development services to children. Its website states the organization's mission is to "provide for the socioeconomic betterment of the greater Latino community of California, while preserving the pride, values and heritage of the Mexican-American culture."
Carrasco was hired in December 2014 as a teacher's assistant and later became a teacher at MAOF's Telegraph Center in East Los Angeles, which provides infant and toddler care, the suit states. She taught children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old in MAOF's Head Start program, according to the suit filed in November 2021.
MAOF closed for a time during the pandemic, then reopened in September 2020 after the organization held an online meeting concerning teachers, staff, supervisors and administrators, the suit stated.
"Some of the people in attendance were concerned that it was too soon and too risky to reopen MAOF at that time," the suit stated.
Carrasco was one of those who expressed concern, noting the virus was still spreading, and she also worried about her underlying health condition and the increased risks she faced from the virus if she returned to teaching at the school, according to the suit.
MAOF's supervisors and administrators knew Carrasco had diabetes, that she had lost vision in one eye and was seeking medical treatment for her other eye, the suit states. However, MAOF did not try to find reasonable accommodation for her condition by providing her with such options as more personal protective equipment, increased social distancing, the ability to work remotely or the grant of a leave of absence, the suit stated.
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Several other teachers did work from home during that time, providing virtual learning to the students whose parents chose to keep them home, the suit stated.
MAOF closed two classrooms from September to December 2020 due to COVID-19 exposure, but the organization did not shut down the entire facility, the suit stated.
Carrasco contracted COVID-19 while working at MAOF in November or December 2020, became ill and died Dec. 3, 2020, according to the suit.
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