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Back in 2009, this writer was in grad school and expecting her second child. He was born in late August and this writer went back to class eleven days later. It’s hard, and was probably something for which she should have taken more time off.

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Live and learn, we guess.

Right now, Georgetown Law is in hot water because it denied exam accommodations for a pregnant student who is due to give birth during exams. Her classmates — also law students — are speaking out:

The statement reads:

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.” 

Title IX prohibits education institutions from discriminating against students based on sex, including current, potential, or past pregnancy or related conditions. An accommodation is not unreasonable and must be offered by the school unless it “fundamentally alters” the nature of its program. 

Georgetown Law has a legal and moral duty to support pregnant students during the regular school year or finals.

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The school argues it’s not ‘fair’ to the ‘non-birthing’ class members to provide these accommodations to Brittany. Would it be ‘unfair’ to offer accommodations to a student with another disability because he has ‘non-disabled’ classmates?

If we want to create an environment where women can be mothers and have careers or pursue education, we need to encourage places like Georgetown to make reasonable accommodations for postpartum mothers. And we need to put pressure on them to do so.

It also seems to be a problem for disabled students, who have been denied accommodations, too, according to this:

The exam should be up to the professor.

This writer is going to cynically guess that if Brittany was having an abortion in December, the school would be accommodating.

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It is absurd and not at all ‘inequitable.’

They should. We suspect phone calls will be made now that this story is getting traction.

Spoiler alert: the do not do better. That baby this writer had in 2009? She was fired from a job with a Catholic organization for being pregnant.

So it happens.

It sure does.

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That’s how it should be.

This made us chuckle.

The people who Georgetown said would be on the receiving end of some ‘inequality’ if Brittany took the exam early are saying they’re not.

Probably.

Oh, look: exactly what we said.

Great minds think alike.