This.
And, if not a formal accommodation but something that any student should be able to have, did not having it make a difference. Depends on just how many questions the student had, what they were, and if the student would have answered differently. That’s a lot of proving.
I think this would be a tough one to win.
If the school’s policy was that the course had to be taken within the next academic year, why would they have forced her to retake it in a condensed form in the summer?
If true, it sounds like the school did what they could to make it difficult for this student. Forcing her to take a condensed course, testing her in a separate part of campus instead of allowing her to stay in the same building (even though they were permitting another student to test there), and offering to answer the phone but not picking up are not actions that suggest a supportive environment.
According to that article she was already failing the class. Did she request accommodations previous to this? Colleges can not arrange for students to have accommodations. Students must disclose their disability and provide documentation then the plan is set up. The course may not have been offered in the fall. It may be a spring course only and she didn’t want to wait until Spring semester to re-take it. Or it may have been a per-requisite course that she needed to pass in order to progress in the nursing program, hence having to re-take it in the summer. If she didn’t pass it, and could not continue with the higher level classes she would need to change her major.
It sounds like being able to contact the teacher was NOT part of her contractual accommodations (IF any existed) and the teacher was going out of her way to help but was unable to fulfill that offer for reasons we are not privy to.
Since when are students able to discuss an exam with a teacher? This was the second time the student was taking the class, did she not have her old tests to study from? She shouldn’t have been surprised by any of the material. She wasn’t passing the class prior to the final anyway!
In MANY markets, there is a glut of inexperienced nurses who have just graduated and passed their boards. These grads, even ones who passed their classes with flying colors, are having a hell of a time finding good jobs. Any facility which uses Google will find this young lady and will likely PASS not only because of any perception that she was not strong academically, but because they will view her as litigious and a dangerous person to hire. I fear that she may win the battle but not the war.
Quite possibly the room used by the other student (was this a student in the same class or an unrelated testing situation?) was unavailable. Or was the other student in the same class and these two students were unwilling to share a room?
There is nothing here about her being forced out of the exam room the others were in. She choose that testing situation.
I’ve seen students ask clarifying questions to the professor. But it’s not a common occurrence and considering this was her second time through the course with this professor, it seems unlikely it was that confusing. This really sounds like someone looking for one excuse after another. If she needed the accommodations so badly, why hadn’t she arranged for them the first time she took the course, or after she failed her first exam in that course? And how many of the questions were so confusing to her, and was she able to answer correctly the ones she didn’t have to question the professor on?
How big is this school? Was it really more than a 5 minute walk between these rooms? Still not understanding why she didn’t complete the exam except for the problem she didn’t understand, then walk over to the testing room, ask the prof, sit down and answer the last question.
What I find troublesome about this is that kids with no accommodations because they don’t have anxieties can’t have questions answered when they are taking computerized common core tests, even if it’s not to get an answer to a test question. My daughter was proctoring a test for 2nd graders and there were words used in the instructions that some of the kids in the class didn’t know, and she was not allowed to explain it to them.
Kids with no anxieties also do run out of time.
I think the only thing that matters for her case is what her accommodations were, if any, and whether or not the school met them. Whether or not anyone believes the accommodations were fair doesn’t matter. She either qualified for them or she didn’t. The school either complied with federal regulations or they didn’t. How easy any of that is to prove, I don’t know.
Testing conditions for neurotypical 2nd graders are no different than the conditions for students with accommodations in that respect; kids with accommodations don’t get words defined for them either.
Does anyone here know the law on lawsuits under the ADA? I don’t know whether a plaintiff only needs to prove that agreed-upon accommodations were denied, or whether she also needs to prove that she was injured by the denial.
Only that she was denied. However, I don’t know how level of damages will be determined.
In some universities, the prof doesn’t even stay in the room when you take a test. E.g., Princeton
“All in-class tests and examinations are administered under the provisions of the
Honor Code. Under the Honor Code, members of the faculty do not proctor in-class
examinations. After distributing the test or exam materials and answering any questions
from students, the faculty member should leave the room.”
Is she really entitled to legally require him to use his own private cell phone for accommodating her? What if the professor doesn’t own a cell phone? Can she sue him for that? What if he doesn’t get reception in the exam room:? Suit-worthy? What if his phone is broken or he forgot to bring it that day? What if he canceled his cell phone because he’s a poorly paid adjunct at a school which has to divert what should be decent faculty pay to pay staff and lawyers to deal with people like her? How were these essential accommodations provided 10-15 years ago when many people didn’t own cell phones?
Seems to me for a fraction of the cost of her lawyer, this student could hire a tutor to help her learn the material and pass the class.
Trying to imagine this lawsuit on one of the daytime Court TV shows like Judge Judy etc.
This case raises a real problem. Students with disabilties are often put in separate rooms for testing without the same access to the professor proctoring.
My daughter tells me that during her college years (at an Ivy), the college changed policies for proctoring so that the professor no longer proctored exams. Instead, a non-faculty proctor was in the main exam room and another non-faculty proctor was in any separate room provided a student with a disability who was taking it separately.
This leveled the playing field by removing access to a professor for everyone.
As long as the nursing student’s college provided access to a professor in the room where the majority were taking the exam, they were legally required to provide access for students taking the exam in a separate room.
The professor knew this and offered contact via cell phone, and then didn’t answer.
I think the student has a very good case. Take emotion out of it. It is logical legally.
My daughter’s college knew of this liability (maybe someone raised the issue in a similar way) and addressed it so that noone has more or less access to a professor who is not actually even there.
Is the student going to be able to demand similar accommodations when they join the work-force?
Physician here. btw- physicians can function well with treated disorders such as depression. It is not the diagnosis but the inability to function that worries me. Desire to do something is not the same as ability to do it. This student seems to need a reality check for professions s/he can cope with.
Peter- yes, corporations which obey the law accommodate. But there is a difference between purchasing a state of the art communications system for an employee who is deaf and needs various technology interventions to do her job, vs. someone whose disability might make them unable to get professional certification (pass the nursing board exams?) from the git-go. Large companies deal with disabled employees all the time, and progressive ones will go out of their way to attract and retain talented people regardless of what accommodations they need. But someone who is struggling to pass the related course-work to get certified? Is a hospital required to provide a quiet room for a nurse who needs silence in order to record patient records accurately? Is a hospital required to give a private office (not a cubicle) to a nurse who can’t concentrate with ambient noise?
But this is all irrelevant until the student passes all the courses required to graduate.
This is not a job interview. It is not the nursing licensing exams. It is a college class. The student was entitled to certain accommodations, and she didn’t get them.
Agree, @Cardinal Fang, and it’s the only thing that’s relevant to this case.
Schools are either allowed to discriminate against people with disabilities or they’re not. I don’t think letting schools ignore 504 plans is a road we want to go down. The school isn’t required to give her a passing grade, just provide the accommodations in her 504.
It wasn’t clear to me from the article I saw whether her anxiety is a general anxiety or just testing anxiety. If it’s related to testing and the college hasn’t been providing her accommodations, I can see how that would be stressful. It doesn’t mean that stress would cross over to her career. Even if she does suffer from general anxiety, if she can’t pass the boards (and continuing ed classes), she won’t get her license. But that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t get accommodations for college classes if she qualifies for them.
The cell phone is described in the student’s suit as an offer from the professor, not an accommodation mandated by the student’s disability plan. " Burbella’s professor, Christina Tomkins, offered an additional accommodation in allowing her to ask questions of the professor via cell phone during the test." But now it’s morphed into a legal requirement?
“The suit says a university counselor witnessed Burbella “breaking down and crying” when several calls to her professor went unanswered.” Might the counselor have offered to go get the professor or to escort the student to the professor so that the student could ask the question? These people seem to have no problem solving skills whatsoever.