But this seems to be asking for more. That it makes a student "uncomfortable" doesn't rise to the need for reasonable accommodation
Bingo. The tweets referred to in the article mention that this should only be for "diagnosed anxiety". Unfortunately, we live in the real world, and in the real world, a parent that is persistent enough can ALWAYS find a doctor who will diagnose their kid with anything.
An all too common example: when i was young, I was extremely out of shape, so physical education was problematic for me. I also really needed it. But one visit to my doctor, and since those were the days when "everyone has asthma", it took 10 minutes to convince him I did, he wrote me a note, and I easily got out of having to do any significant physical activity. I also believed it (I didn't try to lie...I truly thought there was something wrong with me).
My wife has real asthma and could have an attack/end up at the ER if she overdoes it. Obviously she should be excused of something like this. How do you tell them apart though?
Another example is how a friend of mine couldn't accept their kid were mediocre at school. Not bad, just not A+ students. They went to every doctor they could find until one gave them a dyslexia diagnostic. I think they said it took 15 (FIFTEEN!!!!) doctors before one agreed to it. And they repeated that with their next kid (Oh, yeah, 2 kids in a row with dyslexia that in both cases required 15 different doctors to agree to it. In the second case, even the doctor who diagnosed the first didn't agree...). Yeah, I'm sure it's legit.
The article, to me, is the same thing. Someone in the twitter thread said something akin to "When I had to give a presentation at school, the day before I couldn't sleep and my hands were sweaty. I was scared to death".
Yeah cowboy, you and EVERYONE ELSE. Congratulation, you're a human being. But i'm sure they talked to their doctor and got a note, and could get excused from it. That's absurd. Do a few dozen of those presentations, learn to prepare, confront your fears, and you'll get better.
At the same time, some other people mention that they'd get a panic attack. Well, forcing a kid to do something that will trigger a panic attack in front of everyone is probably not great. That person needs therapy. I'd also totally excuse them from it.
However, someone like the above is VERY VERY rare. But if you ask around, you'd think it's 1 out of 5 kid. Bullshit.
How do you find which is which is the tricky thing though. A lot of people will argue its better to let a couple of lazy fragile snowflakes get away with it than have a victim. They're probably right, but can we do better than that? I'd probably say if you can prove you're going to therapy for your anxiety, you're clear. Some will manage to fake a note about that too, but it should be much harder than "I talked to 2-3 doctors until one gave me a doctor note to make me go away", like so many kids do these days.