PennDOT faces civil rights suit

A former engineer with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has filed a federal civil rights complaint contending the agency violated the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act when it terminated her last year.

Lindsey Kring of Roaring Spring, who worked for PennDOT for eight years, said she suffers from a medical condition called Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, a condition, she explained, that is difficult to treat, and which flares up when she is exposed, for instance, to the dust in the PennDOT headquarters in Hollidaysburg.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kring worked remotely from her home, but, she reported, "for no explained reason" the department in March of 2022 decided that she could no longer work from home.

Kring stated that many other nondisabled employees continued to work remotely, and she sought permission to once again work from home.

What followed was a two-year battle that eventually ended in her termination and the loss of a similar position as a civil hydraulic engineer with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources.

PennDOT even appealed her eligibility to receive unemployment compensation.

She reported her supervisors — who she alleges discriminated against her by opposing her accommodation request to work remotely — and they testified against her in August during a hearing on the appeal.

In her lawsuit filed earlier this month in the U.S. District Court in Johnstown, Kring claims that it was "clear" her Senior Civil Engineer Supervisor at PennDOT "had it out for Kring throughout her last two years of employment."

She continues, stating, "What is not clear is why Ms. Kring endured discrimination by PennDOT and why it was allowed to run rampant and unchecked, despite Mr. Kring filing a complaint with PennDOT's investigatory body."

She said the internal squabble cost her a lucrative job opportunity (with DEP) based on "unsubstantiated negative performance reviews that were all completed by the very person who spent each day bullying her and retaliating against her on the basis of her disability accommodation requests and FMLA leave."

Kring said she, through a lawyer, filed complaints with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

She said she was granted the right to sue, but, at present, is representing herself.

Kring is seeking $169,000 in back pay and lost employment, a severance package offered to employees for her eight years of service and her eventual denial of unemployment compensation.

PennDOT spokesperson Alexis Campbell, when asked if PennDOT had a comment about the Kring charges, wrote in an email, "We cannot comment on litigation."

In her lawsuit, Kring reported the issue with her employer began in March of 2022 after her stint as a remote worker during COVID-19.

When asked what type of work she performed for PennDOT, Kring, a graduate of Geneva College, gave an example.

She and another engineer at one point designed stormwater management systems for more than

But for nine years, she noted, she has suffered from Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, a condition caused by exposure to antitoxins that can often occur in water

-damaged buildings.

The disease is often difficult to diagnose and, as she explained, difficult to treat.

She related that even before coming to work in the morning, she went through two hours of treatment.

And, in June 2022, she brought an air purifier to her job site in the PennDOT District 9 office

in Hollidaysburg.

Her supervisor, she stated, "began harassing her" about the use of a purifier and would turn it off without her permission.

She then joined the union "in hopes they could help her resolve the issues with her supervisor interfering with her use of her accommodation to treat her disability."

She also began using the Family and Medical Leave Act to receive antibiotic treatments.

Kring stated that in July 2022 she received her first negative job review which, she stated in her lawsuit, "struck her as odd" because her reviews until that point were always good.

She charges the poor review was in retaliation for using FMLA in seeking an accommodation.

Later that year, she applied for the position as Hydraulic Civil Engineer with the DEP and later interviewed for the job.

She stated that she was a top candidate for the DEP position, but that agency's Human Resources Office had reservations about her hire due to PennDOT's negative performance reviews.

By July 2023, Kring said she received multiple letters from PennDOT asking her to resign, but when she refused to follow that advice, she was terminated.

As she was leaving the PennDOT office that day, she received a call from a DEP official who told her that twice she was listed as the top choice for the position, but the DEP Human Resources Office would not allow her to be hired in view of PennDOT's negative reviews.

While she is seeking money damages, she also is asking the "false negative performance reviews must be removed from her PA Commonwealth HR file and she must be removed from a ban to work at any state agency or office other than PennDOT District 9-0."

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Stephanie L. Haines.

Kring stated she was raised on a Bedford County farm but now lives in Roaring Spring.