Background
Jaleelah Hassan Ahmed, the Superintendent of Hamtramck Public Schools, took medical leave during the pandemic and was prohibited from returning while an investigation into alleged misconduct was pending. She sued the school district, board members, and the teachers union, alleging discrimination and retaliation. The district court denied her motion to file a Fourth Amended Complaint as futile and dismissed her original claims.
The court’s reasoning
The court applied the standard that leave to amend should be freely given. It determined that the district court erred in finding the proposed amendments futile because the new claims for FMLA retaliation and Title IX discrimination contained sufficient factual matter to state a plausible claim for relief under the Twombly and Iqbal standards.
The district court erred in denying Ahmed leave to file a Fourth Amended Complaint, so we need not reach her challenge to the dismissal of the original complaint.
Ahmed v. Hamtramck Pub. Schs., et al., No. 24-1775 (6th Cir. 2026)
What it means going forward
The case is remanded to the district court to allow the plaintiff to proceed with her Fourth Amended Complaint, potentially expanding the scope of the litigation to include new statutory claims.