Battle Over Service Dog At Law School Graduation

The hippie bastion is being accused by a graduating student of denying her service dog entry to commencement.

There is a dust-up at Vermont Law School over the Americans with Disabilities Act. The hippie bastion is being accused by a graduating student of denying her service dog entry to commencement.

Last Thursday, the student, who I’ll call Dog Lover, sent an email to all students at VLS, as well as school administrators and ABA President Paulette Brown, complaining that the school had decided not to allow Cute Doggy to accompany her to graduation. Dog Lover attributes this slight, as well as some others, to retaliation for filing a complaint against the school for not meeting its obligations under the ADA. It seems as an undergrad, Dog Lover was permitted to bring her dog to all events, and for the last few years at Vermont Law, Cute Doggy was welcomed as a service dog wherever Dog Lover went — until she filed a claim against the school.

From: [Dog Lover]
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2016 12:26 PM
To: Kathy McCullough; abapresident@americanbar.org; Shirley Jefferson; VLS – All Students
Cc: Mark Latham; [ ]
Subject: my service dog not allowed at my commencement ceremony

Please enjoy the attached photo of ABA President Brown posing with my service dog, [Cute Doggy].

I think it is important that President Brown and the ABA Commission on Disability Rights, the National Association of Law Students With Disabilities, and other interested parties, be aware of VLS’s refusal to allow my service dog to accompany me at my commencement.

I have provided information to VLS regarding [Cute Doggy] being my service dog regarding my spinal condition (both from a physical and a psychological mitigation standpoint to reduce muscle spasms) since my first email, to Mathew Carluzzo as the disability accommodations person, on April 25, 2014, and additional information emailed to Mark Latham on May 20, 2014 regarding my undergrad recognizing [Cute Doggy] as a service dog who accompanied me to class. Throughout the two years that I have taken courses here at Vermont Law School, he has been recognized as my service dog, allowed to accompany me to courses and all events.

It was only after my December 30, 2014 complaint to the Dept of Education, Office of Civil Rights, culminated in VLS signing an agreement in August 2015, that Mark Latham told me he would not allow my service dog to accompany me at commencement. Even as of this very moment, items that the DoE OCR had VLS agree to, such as automatic door openers on bathroom doors that were to have been done by October 2015, have not been attended to.

In fact, shortly after I began my Fall 2015 courses, two of which were in Debevoise Hall, the women’s bathroom door next to Yates was increased to 15 pounds resistance, from its already illegal 11 pounds of resistance. A couple weeks prior to President Brown’s visit, I had a state ADA specialist tour VLS with me, and we specifically tested that door. It remained at 15 pounds on the Friday before the Monday of President Brown’s visit, by which time the door resistance weight had been reduced to 8 pounds, like the men’s restroom next to it. As Mark Latham is aware, these doors are to be a maximum of 5 pounds, per the ADA.

Retaliating against me for filing ADA complaints, which I did only after several months of attempting to negotiate with VLS, is not the best policy choice.

[Dog Lover]

When reached for comment, Vermont Law School had a different interpretation of events, and responded:

One of our graduating students did request that her dog accompany her to commencement. However, we were unable to grant the request because her dog is not a service dog.

Now, I am no expert in knowing the difference between a service dog, an emotional support animal, a therapy dog, and a regular old house pet, but I understand that such a difference exists. And Cute Doggy may or may not meet those standards, but assuming Dog Lover is correct, and her dog had been treated like a service dog throughout her law school career, it seems an unusual course change to create a distinction only for graduation.

Sponsored

That said, is there a vast conspiracy against Dog Lover because she filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights, as her email alleges? I’m incredulous. It would be quite a shock if any academic professionals, let alone ones at the law school, engaged in textbook retaliation. Of course, while it might be true, it just seems more likely that there are other, more banal, explanations.


Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

Sponsored