Students call out Georgetown Law for illegally denying pregnant classmate’s exam accommodations

Georgetown Law has told a pregnant law student, whose baby is due during exams, that she must show up to the school in person for her exams just days postpartum. It will not allow her to take an early or remote exam because, it says, “it would be inequitable to all the other non-birthing students in her class.”

According to a petition, Brittany Lovely has been denied her request for accommodations to be made for her final exams in light of her pregnancy and due date. The petition states, “We agree that Georgetown’s denial of her requested accommodations is not supported by the students on whose behalf the school claims to deny her. As students in training for a career in law, we agree that it violates her lawful rights under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972. The accommodations Brittany requested (take the exam early when the finals period begins and/or from home just days after giving birth) are reasonable and are not in any way inequitable, nor do they harm my education at Georgetown.”

Leah Libresco Sargeant

@LeahLibresco

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Georgetown Law has told a pregnant student whose baby is due during exams that she must take the test a few days postpartum, with baby in tow. No early or remote exam since “it would be inequitable to all the other non-birthing students in her class.” docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

11:43 AM · Nov 22, 2024

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The petition asks Georgetown University Law Center’s administration to approve Lovely’s accommodations request and “hold Georgetown Law’s promise of supporting the whole student, including those who are pregnant.”

Lovely is expected to give birth during the first two weeks of December and has just one in-person final exam scheduled for December 13. After denying her request, Georgetown Law suggested that Lovely bring her newborn baby to campus just days after giving birth to take the exam. The one accommodation it was willing to grant was extra time given so she could breastfeed her baby — and the school reportedly told her, “Motherhood is not for the Faint of Heart.”

Title IX is a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal funding. It states that pregnancy is to be considered a temporary disability.

“A student’s pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy, and recovery from such termination of pregnancy must be subjected to the same policies that a recipient applies to any other temporary disability in terms of medical or hospital benefits, service, plan, or policy available all students in a recipient’s education program or activity,” it says.

Title IX also notes that a pregnant student has “justification for a leave of absence for as long a period of time as is deemed medically necessary by the student’s physician, at the conclusion of which the student shall be reinstated to the status that she held when the leave began.”

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