Judge rules that student’s lawsuit over C plus doesn’t make grade. Should courts ever get involved in grade disputes?
The Pennsylvania woman who sued her graduate school professors over a C plus lost in court last week. Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano ruled that Megan Thode failed to prove that her grade in a Lehigh University fieldwork course was the result of any sort of discrimination. (See our earlier blog discussion of the lawsuit.)
In her quest for $1.3 million in damages, Thode argued that the low grade prevented her from advancing in her licensed professional counselor program and forced her to opt for a less prestigious degree that meant a lower income.
The Morning Call, the area newspaper covering this case, has done a great job, including this followup about the prevalence of using the courts to resolve grading disputes.
Here is an except, but look at the entire piece:
Attorneys for Lehigh noted on the first day of the trial that if Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano changed Thode’s grade, his decision would be unprecedented.
They were right, said Philadelphia education attorney J. Freedly Hunsicker, who said he is unaware of any case in which a student has successfully challenged a grade on the basis of educational malpractice alone. “A court is not equipped to determine the quality of a paper or a grade,” Hunsicker said.
The courts’ deference to teachers and professors exists at every rung of the educational ladder. But it tends to be more pronounced in cases that involve institutions of higher learning and even more so when a student is in a professional degree program such as medical or law school, Hunsicker said.
Courts are willing to give universities the benefit of the doubt, rather than intervening and risking an error that could allow a person who truly is not prepared to practice law, medicine or other life-and-death professions into those fields, Hunsicker said.
And last year, a California high school student sued his school district in federal court, alleging his chemistry teacher gave him a C+ to keep him out of the best colleges. The district agreed to raise his grade to a B, and his lawyer withdrew the lawsuit to spare the boy the harsh spotlight a trial would have attracted.
Students disappointed with their grades are more likely to get a judge’s attention when they can make a credible claim that the bad marks are the result of discrimination on the basis of gender, race, religion or some other protected class, education lawyers say.
“A courtroom isn’t the right place to contest a grade, but if a teacher discriminates and thinks they can do whatever they want, that should be challenged,” said Daniel Horowitz, the Lafayette, Calif., lawyer who represented the student with a C+ in chemistry.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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62 comments Add your comment
Prof
February 18th, 2013
5:31 pm
@ Mountain Man, February 18th, 4:26 pm.
Exactly. In other news stories, I read that the judge suggested the student be allowed to retake the course with another professor for a different grade but Lehigh refused, saying that it upheld the professor’s authority to determine the grades in her course.
Home-tutoring parent
February 18th, 2013
6:04 pm
1School isn’t happening. I have two sisters. Both of them gave up on public education. One of them has 1 acre to grow stuff, her results are really lame. The other has a quarter-acre, WOW! this is beautiful!
“You have flowers, succulents, Meyer lemons, figs, apricots, tomatoes, hot peppers, bell peppers, lettuces…”
mountain man
February 18th, 2013
10:01 pm
“In other news stories, I read that the judge suggested the student be allowed to retake the course with another professor for a different grade but Lehigh refused, saying that it upheld the professor’s authority to determine the grades in her course.”
If that is true, then it REALLY puts another spin on this story.
Home-tutoring parent
February 18th, 2013
11:22 pm
I retook a course. Th first prof gave me a “D”, the second gave me an “A”. But I would have gotten a “D” from anybody on my first try. and an “A” from anybody on my second try. The first time, I just wasn’t ready to study every week, I thought I could cruise, procrastinate and cram. Bad lesson learned in K-12, and first-year college. The “D” taught me, “you need to learn to study seriously, and if you fail after that, you’re not that good, but you haven’t studied as hard as you can, so try it.”
Megan didn’t grasp her circumstances, and what she was not doing correctly. Other students got As and Bs. I don’t know why she wasn’t given a second chance.
Home-tutoring parent
February 18th, 2013
11:45 pm
My first “D” in Chem wasn’t counted in my Berkeley GPA. after I got an “A”, but the “D” was GPA-counted for med school apps. My “B’s”s in physics were counted. Even though a lot of pre-meds took easier-O-Chem and Physics classes for bio-major students, I did not get “+1″ GPA credit for taking much harder courses.
Home-tutoring parent
February 18th, 2013
11:53 pm
I remember our high school valedictorian. He’s teaching future teachers. I think he should be directly teaching high school students.
Home-tutoring parent
February 19th, 2013
12:10 am
Tech has really good students. Why aren’t Tech 3.7+ GPA grads running Atlanta middle and high school math and science departments? And maybe running the schools, for that matter?
Prof
February 19th, 2013
11:15 am
@ mountain man. From an online news source:
“The [judge's] verdict upholds that “the university faculty have the responsibility to fairly evaluate the work of their students, and that academic rigor should not be compromised,” said Gary Sasso, dean of Lehigh’s College of Education.
“We feel very badly for Megan Thode,” Sasso said. “We hope that in the future she goes forward and does good things. We remain open to conversations with her about her readmission into that program, into our program, and into that class.”
Sasso added: “Nobody really won in this case. We felt like it shouldn’t have gotten this far, but it did.”
Orloski [lawyer for student Thode] called the result disappointing, while expressing doubt that Thode will pursue an appeal. Like university officials, he said it was a case that shouldn’t have wound up in a courtroom — though he charged Lehigh brought that about by rejecting his requests to put the dispute before an arbiter.”
Since Thode has already gotten her degree in another program and now has a job a drug and alcohol counselor, it’s pretty safe to say that she won’t follow Dean Sasso’s offer. And if Lehigh had indeed allowed the professor’s grade to be challenged on these grounds, it would have set a dangerous precedent for the school!
sliderule
February 19th, 2013
2:29 pm
I wonder if dear old dad still works at the university.
theshadow
February 19th, 2013
3:24 pm
‘Culturally diverse’ = excuse for a useless non-performing human that blames everyone but themselves for being unaccountable.
Prof
February 19th, 2013
5:24 pm
@sliderule. I remember reading that he’s been there for 31 years, so either he’s just retired or is about to. Probably a “ride-off-into-the-sunset” fantasy of his. …I’ve known some pretty embittered academics who didn’t get promoted when they thought they should.
Really amazed
February 19th, 2013
8:52 pm
Georgia public elem, middle and high schools won’t give out anything less than a B. If a student does receive a C they get to redo test or receive extra credit!!!