Posted on 09/19/2007 3:31:31 PM PDT by SkyPilot
BOSTON (AP) — A judge rejected a Harvard student’s request Wednesday for extra break time during her nine-hour medical licensing exam so she could pump breast milk for her infant daughter.
Sophie Currier, 33, sued after the National Board of Medical Examiners turned down her request to take more than the standard 45 minutes in breaks during the exam.
She said that if she does not nurse her 4-month-old daughter, Lea, or pump breast milk every two to three hours, she risks medical complications.
Norfolk Superior Court Judge Patrick Brady said Currier has other options, beyond asking the board to change its rules for her.
“The plaintiff may take the test and pass, notwithstanding what she considers to be unfavorable conditions. The plaintiff may delay the test, which is offered numerous times during the year, until she has finished her breast-feeding and the need to express milk,” he said.
Currier, of Brookline, has finished a joint M.D.-Ph.D. program at Harvard University while having two babies in two years. She has been offered a residency in clinical pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital in November, but cannot accept it unless she passes the test. Her goal is a career in medical research.
Currier has taken the test once already, in April when she was 81/2 months pregnant, but she failed by a few points.
“The judge’s conclusion that there is no harm to a woman to putting her career off for a year is the basis of discrimination,” Currier said. “Men do not have to put off their careers because they are feeding a child.”
Her lawyer, Christine Smith Collins, said she would ask the state Appeals Court to hear the case and issue a ruling before Currier takes the test again next week.
Currier has already received special accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act for dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, including being granted permission to take the test over two days instead of one.
In the lawsuit, she was seeking an additional 60-minute break on each day. The board cited the need to be consistent in the amount of time given to doctoral candidates and said other nursing mothers who have taken the exam have found the 45 minutes of permitted break time sufficient.
The judge said the board offered Currier several special accommodations, including a separate testing room where she could express milk during the test or during break time, and the option to leave the test center to breast-feed during break times.
Federal anti-discrimination laws do not protect nursing mothers. The Breastfeeding Promotion Act that is pending in Congress would protect women from being fired or punished for pumping milk or nursing.
“Where she’s disabled, we’ve addressed that under federal law, but this is something that is not a disability,” said the board’s attorney, Joseph Savage. “This means it will be somewhat more difficult for her to take the test, but there are a lot of people who face challenges in taking the test — childcare obligations, medical conditions that make it harder — and we just can’t change the test for everybody who faces a challenge.”
Sounds like she's pretty close to the theoretical "blind jeweler."
and midget basketball player. No doubt she filled a host of special interest quotas by her acceptance into med school.
Considering she claims to have ADHD she will probably just leave them in the car.
I wonder how many of the other people who take that exam would have chosen that “option” for any number of their own personal reasons?
I wouldn’t want anyone who demands such ridiculous “special treatment” in my office workplace, much less in a medical facility!
BTW, I breastfed and worked.
She is dyslexic. Maybe she has trouble figuring out which breast she should use. :::nurse chuckles:::
LOL, oh you are nauti!!
;o) p.s. Your twin grandsons are adorable!
My babies. (happy sigh)
Thank you
Looks like a chimp.
she wants special treatment for being a female with child.
Outrageous! Next, Harvard will deny entry to exams by Moslem women wearing face coverings, just because there’s no way to verify their identities!!! /sarc See message 3.
is that sign a joke?
That smashed windshield isn’t something she did.........yet.
Sophie Currier made it through MIT — brilliantly — in part because the school paid other students to read books to her and share their class notes. By the time she was in graduate school, MIT provided computers that scanned books and read them aloud; she was also allowed extra time on exams...
manipulating parasite - she'll want to wear a hijab next!
NO more calls, please.
We have a winner!
Cheers!
That sums it up nicely.
Hey, hey, back off the innocent baby! She might be a freak, but the kid is a sweet little innocent who deserves prayers, not derision.
Plenty of kids go through phases. My eldest son alternated between totally adorable to "what happened to your face?" for the first year of his life. He grew in spurts, and his face would change while he grew. Thankfully, when it all stopped, he was back to adorable again...and will one day be a very handsome young man.
Let's hope this little one turns out better than the mother.
The mother, yes; the baby, no.
OMG, she does look like Art Carney!
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