Montana college student flunks math, then sues school
File this story under “Campus Justice”.
A Rocky Mountain College art student who flunked and dropped math classes required to earn a degree is suing to force the school to allow her to substitute two non-math courses so she can graduate.
Hannah Valdez’s disabilities prevent her from passing two basic math courses — including algebra, calculus, statistics or trigonometry — that are part of the Billings college’s general education requirements to graduate with a bachelor of art degree, she said in her federal lawsuit.
Valdez’s disabilities include Asperger’s syndrome, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dyscalculia, which is a mathematics learning disability, her attorney, Donald Harris, said Tuesday.
“They don’t understand her disability,” Harris said of Rocky Mountain officials. “The stress and anxiety that Hanna feels when she is trying to be successful with math classes affects her other studies, as well.”
Rocky Mountain admitted her even though college officials knew her SAT score for math placed her in the bottom 5 percent of all students, the lawsuit said.
She attempted to pass two math courses before requesting to substitute the classes in April 2012, which the college denied.
The college permits a course waiver or substitution in circumstances such as unavoidable conflicts or course cancellations, and it is common in other colleges and universities, Harris said.
She filed a lawsuit in state court, claiming negligence by the school and discrimination under the Americans With Disabilities Act. The lawsuit was transferred to U.S. District Court on Nov. 4.
In it, she said she has gone into substantial debt and will incur significant damages if Rocky Mountain prevents her from graduating with a degree because of her mental disabilities.
Comments
“college officials knew her SAT score for math placed her in the bottom 5 percent of all students”
Sounds like they took her money knowing full well that she would be unable to complete the requirements for her degree. So who should be responsible for repaying her government-guaranteed students loans?
She’s full of it. She applied to college knowing their requirements and knowing she sucked at Math. She should’ve studied. I don’t care the length of list of items of her victim status syndromes, her inability to graduate is her problem. I’m unable to learn Math in a classroom because of awful experiences with an early Math teacher. So, I must read the book and figure things out myself or with the help of a tutor. After working at it for a year, to challenge myself, I wrote the Cambridge O’ Level Math exam and got a C. While I wasn’t overly exalted by that C, knowing the depth of my problems with Math, it felt like an A.
So, I’m not exactly loaded down with sympathy for this broad who wants a system to discriminate only in her favor.
Hit the damn books and stop whining!