Law Schools

Georgetown Law Finally Acts Like Decent People After Massive Outrage

They're FINALLY doing right by the student.

By  
on

pregnant womanBrittany Lovely is a 2L at Georgetown University Law Center just trying to get through the semester, like pretty much everyone. She’s also pregnant — due in a matter of days (the first week of December), so in my mind, she deserves all the accolades for balancing those two enormous tasks. But instead of focusing on studying and growing her baby, she’s had to use her third trimester to fight the powers that be at GULC over pretty basic accommodations during finals.

Lovely is due December 2nd. GULC exams are scheduled on December 6-13, with possible deferral exam dates on December 16-18. Anyone who has ever been pregnant, had a child, been around a newborn, or has even a shred of empathy would quickly realize some sort of accommodation is required. As reported by CNN, Lovely met with Title IX officials at Georgetown.

The Title IX official and Lovely came up with two options: to take the exam early when the finals period opened or take it at the same time as everyone else in the class but from home, which would likely be a few days after giving birth.

Both options, which the Title IX official gave to the registrar and the Office of Academic Affairs, were denied, Lovely said.

Lovely asked to meet with the official who denied her request. At the meeting, the official cited the university’s honor code and a school-wide policy prohibiting early exams. And according to a petition — signed by 7,000 student, alumni, and faculty — the response from the administration official was truly out of pocket.

Georgetown Law suggested Brittany bring her days-old child to campus a few days after birth, with minimal recovery, to take the exam with more time so she can breastfeed her newborn baby during the exam. They told her, “Motherhood is not for the Faint of Heart.”

As if taking exams at eight months pregnant was some luxury. Remember, all Lovely was seeking was the ability to take the exams early or from home. This infuriating response galvanized classmates who got to work with the petition referenced above and circulating this flyer.

3b9fc81a-5298-44e1-bd70-0c5f3234f7b8-file_upload-Support-the-Accommodations-and-Rights-Protection-for-Brittany-Lovely-and-All-Pregnant-Students-(1)

Sponsored

The (understandable) ire over the situation from extended members of the GULC community seems to be the only thing that moved the needle. Lovely reports that “only after all of the public outcry,” a resolution was reached with the law school.

While not commenting on the specifics of Lovely’s account, a spokesperson for the school had the following comment, “Georgetown is committed to providing a caring, supportive environment for pregnant and parenting students. We have reached a mutually agreeable solution with the student who raised concerns.”

“Georgetown offers academic and practical resources to assist in the completion of a student’s degree while they are pregnant or parenting including pregnancy related adjustments from the Office of Title IX Compliance, and disability accommodations from our Academic Resource Center. Georgetown does not publicly comment on the specifics of individual student matters,” the spokesperson continued.

Lovely hopes her experience means permanent changes so that future pregnant students don’t have to deal with this bullshit. “What I really would like to see is the school, and I guess law schools generally, to like to see their role in supporting their students and really show up,” she said. “I would expect a policy change at this point from the school, just to make sure that nobody else ever has to go through something like this again.”

Sponsored

Kathryn Rubino HeadshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].

Topics

, , , ,