A disabled nursing student (i.e. prone to anxiety, depression and difficulties with concentration) is suing for discrimination
http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news-news/153452858/Woman-suing-Misericordia-over-failed-course
Is this going to open the floodgates for lawsuits by students unhappy with their grades?
Doubtful.
I have a question about using the label of “accommodation” for being allowed to ask the prof questions. This wasn’t something recommended by the psychologist, so probably wouldn’t fall under ADA protections. It sounds like a favor from the prof, who then wasn’t available. Can you sue because the prof didn’t do what she said she would? For the courts to decide.
Can’t imagine how this poor student would sit for her nursing boards. Extra time and distraction free environments are pretty common accommodations, but, even if “phone a prof” was one, who the heck would one call?
Wow! The medical profession in general is not a good place for people with high anxiety, depression and low concentration. I’m betting the court will recognize that it would be insane to grant an award here. I don’t see this opening up any kind of flood gate as I doubt this student will win.
I don’t think any accommodation should be available. Nursing is a tough job and it’s not exactly in a stress-free environment. What happens when she is distracted by something and makes a medical error? Scary.
Regarding the phone-a-prof option, I didn’t have an experience with this until recently. This semester I have a student who takes the exam in a different location and then calls me during the exam to ask questions. For the second midterm, I tried to specify email as the preferred form of communication so I could just quietly and briefly respond on my phone but the testing office wanted to limit communications to the phone. It is hard for the prof to answer multiple, lengthy questions on the phone without leaving the room and I’d really like to stay and proctor the exam. I can see how the prof might have just shut off the phone during the exam to reduce distractions.
There are some professions where there should be a limit to accommodations. I think the medical field is one of them.
I feel bad for her, but she shouldnt be a nurse. I am quite frankly tired of everyone suing as this one in particular doesnt have merit.
I’d be concerned about her suitability for the highly stressful job of nursing if she has serious issues with “anxiety, depression and difficulties with concentration” and needs a Prof around to answer questions during an exam.
Not only would I wonder about her performance in the nursing boards, but also what if she’s in an medical emergency situation where seconds count and asking doctors/other colleagues multiple basic questions could slow them down from saving a patient’s life.
I think I’ve mentioned that I work in the office on campus that is, among other things, the campus disabilities office. How a disability manifests itself in an educational setting may be completely different from how, if at all, it manifests on the job. In other words, in many respects, nursing school isn’t much like nursing. So, while it might be one thing to wonder how a student would get through boards, which is essentially an academic/testing situation, it is a huge leap to assume the student couldn’t perform the job. You think there aren’t practicing nurses, even doctors, out there with depression and anxiety?
The law says we can’t keep people out of programs based on what ifs. If students can perform to the standard with reasonable accommodations, they deserve a shot. If the lack of concentration, etc. makes a student unsafe in clinicals, it is up to the clinical instructor to fail her based on performance, and that will have nothing to do with needing accommodations during testing.
“A disabled nursing student (i.e. prone to anxiety, depression and difficulties with concentration) is suing for discrimination”
-Kuddos to the school that failed such student! This student should not be put into any patients care system. The failures have prevented many much more critical situations for many people who might be put under this nurse care in a future. I remove my hat and bow and say big “THANK YOU” to this college.
Wow - I see a lot of judgy comments here. As @ordinarylives said, how a disability manifests itself in an educational setting may be completely different from how, if at all, it manifests on the job.
The fact of the matter (at least, based on the excerpt that OP included) is that this young lady was given an accommodation based on her disability, and when it came time for that accommodation to be executed, it wasn’t. I can only imagine how the poor girl felt when the professor didn’t answer the phone. Frankly, that seems cruel on the professor’s part, almost passive-aggressive.
I don’t think it’s our place to argue whether her accommodations are appropriate as we don’t have access to her evaluations. Obviously an expert felt that this accommodation was necessary. The real question is why this professor subtly denied her the originally approved accommodation in the first place.
My contention, based on nothing more than the wording of the article (so, very possible I’m wrong) is that phoning the prof is not an accommodation but a favor offered by the prof. The extended time and distraction free testing were offered at the request of the psychologist, someone who can provide documentation of a disability. Profs can’t offer disability accommodations on their own. Probably a misuse of the term by the journalist who wrote the article.
Generally, professors need to be available by phone or email during any exam for all students, whether in a classroom with 100 people or for someone with any sort of accommodation where they are taking the exam in a different location and/or at a different time.
HOWEVER: we NEVER EVER NEVER EVER give our personal phone numbers out to students, and not only that, when we are made available by phone, work phone or personal phone, it is the disablity office’s coordinator who calls us. I have scheduled disabled students exams to end when the rest of the class’ exams start, or start when the rest of the class’ exams end so that I can communicate with the students who have accommodations to take the exam at another location.
I have been through this many times, and no student ever has called me personally - it is always my contact at the disability office. As for not being available during the exam by phone when the professor “offered” this (again, it is very common to make this a standard practice or risk the student having to retake the exam), we don’t know why the professor was not available. I use text if I have to communicate with a disability office coordinator about an exam, and I also have a TA to cover for me if I have to answer the phone for whatever reason during an exam.
Accommodations must be reasonable; if the professor was ill or called to a meeting, it was not reasonable for the business of the university to stop for that one student. However, allowing a retake of the final exam would have occurred on my campus.
But that’s because we think that access to the professor, or exam coordinator for a common exam, is a basic right for all students.
I’m surprised they didn’t let her retake another version of the final exam. It sounds like one of the accommodations didn’t work properly. It might not have been anyone’s fault, but… well, if this accommodation was necessary then I think she should have gotten a retake and if this accommodation wasn’t necessary then it should not have been offered.
Granted, this was about 20 years ago, and policies may have changed, but I had a friend who had to quit medical school due to incredible anxiety he suffered during exams. No amount of extra accommodations could help him get through the written exams, even though he clearly knew the material when questioned verbally. In the end, both he and the school decided he shouldn’t stay in med school – he’d never pass the boards or any other of the demanding exams doctors face while in school and throughout their careers.
My D has a friend who is in college and has an accommodation to take exams in an alternate environment due to anxiety. She found out halfway through the semester that the professor was giving additional information about how to answer certain questions on the tests during the tests that everyone else was taking in the classroom. She missed out on that information and it obviously affected her performance versus others who got the information. As @rhandco says, usually a professor is there during an exam in case there are issues or questions - in this case, perhaps this was the way to keep the playing field level for this girl who was not in the classroom, and it failed.
This case exemplifies how some people just aren’t suited for some professions-- like the Germanwings pilot who deliberately crashed his plane.
Holy cow: phone-a-prof!
When I was a student, from time to time I’d ask a question during an exam, as did other students. That privilege should be available to students taking the exam in another location.
I don’t know if there’s actually a cause of action because a professor didn’t fulfill a promise. I do know that if passing an exam on the second try hangs on the razor-thin edge of calling your professor with a question…it may be hard to prove that that you would have passed if your accommodations had been met.
If a student in this position asked my advice, I’d tell her to exhaust every possible path towards her degree besides suing. Having your name on this kind of lawsuit is bad news for her future employability.