Wednesday, September 26, 2007

WOOHOO! Med. exam mom won her appeal!

Congrats to Sophie Currier on winning her appeal (title is a link to the yahoo news story)! I'm so glad the appeals court judge gets it - accommodation to one issue (dyslexia/ADHD) doesn't preclude the need for accommodation for another (breastfeeding)... and shame on the medical examining board for discriminating against her in the first place, they should have gotten it without the need for a lawsuit. Hell, her pre-existing learning disabilities make her need for the extra break time INCREASE, not decrease - "oh, other breastfeeding mothers have taken the exam without needing extra break time" - yeah, but were they ALSO dyslexic and suffering from ADHD and needing extra testing time for those issues? If they're fast test-takers anyway, they probably made it through the test sections fast enough to go pump/pee/eat/whatever without NEEDING to ask for accommodations.

What if it'd been someone with dyslexia, ADHD, and fecal incontinence issues? Would the extra break time so they could change their undergarments on a regular basis have been questioned?

Go Sophie! Can't wait to see what advances in pathology you bring to the world, I have faith that you're going to go on to great work.

2 comments:

Serena Castells said...

Yay for using that asshole blogger's own arguments against him (what if it had been someone with incontinence issues).

Reminds me of that one comedian I mentioned once, to whom I had emailed "if a fat, ugly, disgusting man can walk around shirtless in public, why can't a woman bare a little skin to feed a child?". Part of his reply was that he did, actually, think that fat, ugly, disgusting people should be hidden from the public. Too bad he so frequently uses the opposite argument when it comes to people who think his show is too offensive and shouldn't be allowed to exist.

Of course, he didn't say anything to my comment about public nose-picking. Now that's a cause I would be happy to champion.

Amanda said...

did you see the medical board plans to appeal the decision?