Nigerian Dad Drags US School To Court Over Ebola

A Nigerian dad based in the US, Stephen Opayemi, has dragged an elementary school in Connecticut to court for banning his seven-year-old daughter from attending school for 21 days based on irrational fears over Ebola.

According to Reuters report, Opayemi filed the lawsuit in federal court in New Haven, Connecticut and asked a judge to order the Meadowside Elementary School, in Milford, Connecticut, to immediately return his daughter to third-grade class.

It was gathered that the affected daughter recently attended a wedding in Nigeria and she has not experienced any symptoms associated with Ebola and her health is fine.

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The lawsuit however stated that parents and teachers in the elementary school were concerned she could transmit Ebola to other children.

“We’re hoping this will get her back into school as soon as possible,” the girl’s mother, Ikeolapo Opayemi, said in a brief interview at their home.

When asked if she was surprised by the school system’s actions, the mother, who said they had lived in Milford for more than six years, nodded in agreement.

The Connecticut third-grader, Ikeoluwa Opayemi, traveled with her father to and from Lagos, Nigeria, between 2-13 October, according to the lawsuit.

Investigation revealed that African communities in the United States have reported an increasing amount of ostracism since the Ebola epidemic began.

Also, no fewer than two speeches by Liberians have been canceled by U.S. universities, and a college in Texas refused admission to Nigerian students over worries about the virus.

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A neighbor of the Opayemi family, Prashant Batil, said his 6-year-old plays often with Ikeoluwa and that he believed the school system was overreacting.

“The parents are extremely responsible people, and if they say she does not have Ebola, I would have no reluctance for my daughter to play with her,” Batil told newsmen.

Opayemi’s suit was filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The law prohibits discrimination based on someone having a physical or mental impairment, or on the belief that someone has such an impairment.

Milford officials refused the father’s offer to have both himself and his daughter screened for Ebola, the suit says.

City and school officials told Ikeoluwa not to return to school until Nov. 3, the suit says.

This is coming after the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says there is little risk or no risk of contracting Ebola unless someone has been in close contact with a person who has it and who is symptomatic.

Only two days ago, President Goodluck Jonathan had said that the continued stigmatization of Nigerians by some countries over the Ebola virus disease must stop.

President Jonathan made this remark,on Monday in Abuja in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati during the Foreign Ministers of Germany and France visit at the Presidential Villa.

Jonathan, according to the statement, said he expected that Nigerians would no longer suffer discriminatory checks and stigmatisation abroad now that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had certified the country Ebola-free.

It would be recalled that Nigeria had 20 cases of the deadly Ebola virus disease and eight deaths this year before the World Health Organization,WHO, declared the country Ebola-free on 19 October.

According to the WHO, at least 5,000 people have died from the epidemic in three other West African countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.