10-02-2025
The Seventh Circuit has joined several U.S. circuit courts in upholding the right to pursue a hostile work environment under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. In Blumenshine v. Bloomington School District, Tanya Blumenshine taught in the Bloomington School District for many years. The district decided to transfer her when she was 52 years of age. Blumenshine alleged that in her new position, the district assigned her a disproportionate number of behaviorally challenged students, wrongly criticized her job performance, intentionally sabotaged her work by failing to provide her with classroom support, and subjected her to an administrator who intimidated her. These events combined to create a harassing environment that Blumenshine believed was because of her age.
In its opinion, the Seventh Circuit addressed the “threshold dispute” — whether the ADEA permits hostile work environment claims. The court looked to the statutory language, which prohibits discrimination against any individual who is 40 years or older “with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment.” This identical language is included in Title VII and the ADA. Both of those statutes have been interpreted to recognize hostile work environment claims. The Supreme Court previously held that when Congress uses the same language in statutes having similar purposes, “it is appropriate to presume that Congress intended that text to have the same meaning in both statutes.”
To establish a hostile work environment claim, Blumenshine had to establish that she was subject to unwelcome harassment, the harassment was based on her age, the harassment was sufficiently severe or pervasive to create a hostile work environment, and there was a basis to hold the employer liable. She bore the burden of demonstrating that the employer was driven by age. Blumenshine was unable to establish that any of the alleged conduct was motivated by age beyond her own belief that it was.