Lillie Ferrell spent 30 years as a teacher at the Leake & Watts school in Yonkers. Almost every single report on her job performance during that time was positive.

Then one day the school hired a new principal. In a decision straight out of the movie "American Beauty," the new principal ordered everybody on the faculty write him an essay entitled, "“Why I Stay and Work at Leake & Watts."

Lillie Ferrell's essay was handwritten and contained some spelling mistakes. The principal put her on probation for a month, along with two younger teachers. The vice principal wrote performance reports on Lillie Ferrell during that month. In those reports, the vice principal made a lot of grammatical mistakes.

Still, the reports were negative - bad grammar and all. During the same time, Lillie Ferrell heard the vice principal tell a student that Lillie was "too old to be in a classroom."

The school fired Lillie Ferrell, who was 61, and kept the two younger teachers, who were in their forties. Lillie Ferrell sued for job discrimination. A U.S. District Court judge looked at the lawsuit, decided it had no merit, and threw it out.

Yesterday, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals took Lillie Ferrell's side and said the case now has to go to trial.