Professor told pregnant student to take ‘responsibility,’ drop class in Utah, feds say
_fitted.png "A complaint said a college professor in Utah encouraged a student to drop a course because she was pregnant.")
A federal investigation found that a community college in Utah violated a pregnant student’s rights, officials announced Tuesday, June 14.
The complaint said a college professor at Salt Lake Community College in Utah encouraged a student to drop a course because she was pregnant and told her to “accept responsibility for her pregnancy,” according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to the school’s president.
In an email to the school’s Title IX coordinator, the student said she felt the professor “would rather help her drop out of the class or fail rather than try to help me succeed,” the letter says.
The school violated Title IX, which protects students from discrimination based on sex for programs or activities that receive federal funding, by failing to respond to the student’s complaint of pregnancy discrimination or to help determine proper “special services and/or academic adjustments,” the Department of Education said. Additionally, the school did not excuse her absences related to her pregnancy or provide the opportunity to make up missed work, according to a news release.
The college also violated Section 504, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of a disability for programs and activities that receive federal funding, by not working with the student to determine if her pregnancy caused a “temporary disability requiring academic adjustments,” the Department of Education said.
As part of the resolution agreement, SLCC must revise its nondiscrimination statement, the department said.
The college said it is working with the Office of Civil Rights to address the complaint and ensure “reasonable accommodations” in the future, according to an statement emailed to McClatchy News.
“These steps include strengthening internal processes related to investigating complaints, improving student access to Title IX information, and evaluating and fulfilling requests for accommodation,” the statement says.
The school will ensure, the statement says, that staff and faculty are trained how to properly accommodate the needs of pregnant students.
“As we approach the 50th anniversary of Title IX next week, Salt Lake Community College’s commitments today take an important step to provide the equal access to education Congress has promised these 50 years,” Catherine E. Lhamon, the Department of Education’s assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement.
