Posted on 10/15/2005 6:36:23 AM PDT by texianyankee
Student files ADA complaint to keep pet in dorm room
SAN ANTONIO - A student has filed an Americans With Disabilities Act complaint against a university because it won't let her keep her pet ferret at her dormitory.
Freshman Sarah Sevick, 19, said in a complaint filed with the U.S. Justice Department that she needs the ferret, named Lilly, at Our Lady of the Lake University to calm her during panic attacks.
"I'm not suing the school, and I'm not asking for money. I'm just trying to get her here," she said.
Sevick said she has been diagnosed with psychiatric problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder. She takes medication for depression and anxiety, she said.
She said her problems are related, legally, to a physical disability.
"It's something inside my body that I can't control," Sevick said.
She is attending the university on a $2,000-per-semester English scholarship and majoring in public relations/marketing.
Sevick asked to keep the ferret at her dormitory and in class before she moved onto campus in August but was denied.
Susan Schleicher, spokeswoman at Our Lady of the Lake, said the university, to protect student privacy, couldn't comment.
Sevick said she's had many attacks since she's been on campus without the ferret.
She discovered Lilly's calming affects when she received the ferret as a gift a year ago.
"Pretty quickly, we realized it was very responsive to her," said Sevick's mother, Kay, who now cares for Lilly. "When [Sarah's] anxiety goes up, [Lilly] climbs on her and nuzzles her and will stay for hours with her until she's better."
Sarah Sevick said university officials feared the ferret was a threat to other students and wasn't trained as a service animal.
Rick White, a local ferret rescuer, supports Sevick.
"The school is using old, outdated information," he said. "In order to make ferrets bite, you have to really provoke them."
Federal officials have denied service-animal status for animals not trained for specific tasks.
Transportation providers make a distinction for animals: Service animals have access rights under the ADA; emotional-support animals do not.
Some transit systems allow therapy animals on buses and trains if they have proper identification from a training facility, according to a 1997 report prepared for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Meanwhile Sevick said she's not doing well in class.
"It's almost like I'm being jinxed," she said.
"Because of that, I stay in my room."
Maybe some ferret fan will let her move into their house.
Somebody buy her a blankie.
William Burroughs of Beat Generation fame kept a ferret in his dorm room at Harvard ...but that was a long time go ...
Tell her to go out and buy a stuffed ferret for cripes sakes. It's just like a binky or that blanket you have to sneak into the washing machine.
Sounds to me like the folks at A&M are just lookin' for scuttle-butt on any other campus. What's Sevick gonna do if she gets to have the ferret? She'll be plum out of excuses for not doing her studies!
And have you ever been around a ferret? "Calming" is NOT a word I would use in that description! Anything but!
If this idgit has the money for this frivolous lawsuit, why is she on a scholarship?
LOL! That brings back memories. My little sister, the baby of eight kids, had an inseparable yellow "blanky" well out of toddlerhood.
The thing would get pretty rank between the times we could snatch it and wash it.
She'd wait in front of the dryer if she caught us.
Naked strippers calm me down. Can I have one in my room?
Why does everything have to be solved with a lawsuit? If you don't like the rules in the dorms, don't live in the dorms. This isn't about doing what's right or standing up for principles, this is about getting her way at any cost on an issue that pisses her off. Welcome to the real world where, a lot of the time, things don't go your frickin' way. You're not living with mommy and daddy anymore.
You raised some excellent questions. I wonder if the fact she has a scholarship means she has to live in a dorm?
I dunno. It's been way too long since I've been involved in the college scene.
"It's almost like I'm being jinxed," she said.
"Because of that, I stay in my room."
That stupid excuse will go real far when you go out and get a job, too. Assuming she graduates and gets a job in public relations, is she going to sue her PR firm to keep her ferret at her desk at work? Time to get lose the security blanket/sippy-cup/pacifier.
I wondered that as well!
How on earth is she gonna make it in society if she has to have a ferret with her at work? Maybe she needs to think about a career at the zoo.
What does A&M have to do with this story? I've tried, but I can't figure out the connection.
My dear friend had a ferret several years ago. The ferret, named "Emily", had her own little doll house in a huge cage. Her little bed had a ruffled comforter, etc. My friend would let Emily out to run the house. The little bugger would steal keys and other small items and hide them. It gave me the creeps. It finally got cancer and all its hair fell out with the treatments the Vet gave her. She only lived a short time after that.
Sarah Sevick's parents should get her an apt that allows pets.
Well, I hope she wins,
because then I'll sue Anna!
She must live with me,
because I get . . . stressed
and only Anna can help
release my, umm, stress . . .
In any case, it's time to step up and be a big girl now.
Sadly, this individual may very well get her way. There are people who spend their life using this kind of crap to get their way. They BS their way through college. They get hired and BS their way through a career as a life-long, full-time victim.
I've seen it at my work. You get people who get hired on because HR decides they need to hire somebody with a "disability". Then the person gets rewarded by being put into a do-nothing job, where they're left alone and carry no responsibility, because they're incompetent, nobody can deal with them, and they get too much time off to know what's going on at work. They stay on the job because there's too big of a risk of a lawsuit if they get canned.
I'm not bagging on people with legitimate disabilities, I'm talking about pampered ritalin-babies who manage to get a doctor's letter and use it to work the system their whole life. The girl in this article thinks she's going to die if she can't have her ferret in her on-campus dorm room. That's not a disability, that's being a whiner.
You're at it again!
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