She had the placard and the approval. She says they cited her anyway

A caseworker says her agency punished her over a parking spot she was allowed to use - then fired her.

Jessica Ward used a handicap placard to park near her office. According to a complaint filed June 17, 2026 in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, that parking spot set off a chain of events that ended with her termination.

Ward worked as an Ongoing Caseworker at Fayette County Children Services. She told the agency she had ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and complications from ear surgery - conditions that, the filing says, limited her ability to walk, stand, and bend. She says she could still perform her job.

The accessible parking space, the complaint alleges, became a recurring problem. It claims a Lead Social Worker began telling Ward in January 2025 that she could not park there despite her disability. On February 3, 2025, according to the filing, that same supervisor reprimanded Ward about the parking in front of several coworkers.

The treatment escalated from there, Ward says. She claims she was singled out for leaving briefly at lunch while coworkers were not, and criticized over an on-call assignment when similarly situated caseworkers were not - what the complaint labels "Disparate Treatment." She says she reported it on June 28, 2025 to a coworker, her supervisor, and the agency's director.

Nothing happened, the complaint alleges. It says the agency conducted no interviews, gathered...

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