Pa. grad student sues, says C-plus cost her $1.3M

ajc.com ^ | 2-13-13

[rawhide]

Graduate student Megan Thode wasn't happy about the C-plus she received for one class,saying the mediocre grade kept her from getting her desired degree and becoming a licensed therapist — and, as a result,cost her $1.3 million in lost earnings.

Now Thode is suing her professor and Lehigh University in Bethlehem,claiming monetary damages and seeking a grade change.

A judge is hearing testimony in the case this week in Northampton County Court. Lehigh and the professor contend her lawsuit is without merit. Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano declined to dismiss the suit Wednesday, ruling that there was enough evidence for the suit to proceed.

Thode took the class in the fall of 2009. Her instructor,Amanda Eckhardt, testified this week that she stood by the grade,saying Thode failed to behave professionally and thus earned zero out of 25 points in class participation, bumping her down a full letter grade.

"I...believed she received the grade she earned," Eckhardt said.

The C-plus prevented Thode, an otherwise A student, from going on to the next class and advancing in her professional therapist studies.

Her attorney, Richard Orloski, argued that Eckhardt targeted Thode because she is an outspoken advocate for gay marriage.

Eckhardt testified that while she believes marriage is between a man and a woman, she would never allow her personal views to influence her treatment of students. She said Thode had outbursts in class, did not participate appropriately, was emotionally unstable and failed to heed a warning letter.

Stephen Thode, the plaintiff's father and a longtime finance professor at Lehigh, testified on his daughter's behalf and said her participation score was highly irregular.

"I have never heard of a case, not just at Lehigh, where a student achieved a zero in class participation where they attended and participated in every class," he said

[JamesP81]

Without details, it could easily be either side in the wrong here. It could easily be both.

But couldn’t she just retake the class at some point?

[JamesP81]

However, I would like to add that it sounds like a spoiled brat not getting what she wanted rather than a vindictive teacher. JMO.

[MortMan]

If there indeed is a warning letter in her file, then the student should not prevail.

Suing for lost wages while still at the student level is hinky, anyway.

[VRWCarea51]

It would be like me filing a lawsuit because my boss gave me a bad annual evaluation..

How about little girl, you put on your big girl panties and LEARN something about setbacks in life. Re-take the class and correct what this Prof. didn’t like.

Sheesh, see it every semester. Kids whining that because they didn’t show up, didn’t do the work and didn’t learn the material the Prof. dare grade them accordingly.

Another product of the Everyone’s a winner mindset.

[Andrei Bulba]

Maybe, however as a straight A+ student of history with a near perfect score on my verbal SAT, plus the fact the paper was just fine and the professor’s “American History” class was 100% revisionism that FDR was a conservative, Lincoln a racist, etc. - means that you’re mistaken and the professor was a liberal jerk who on a daily basis couldn’t tolerate the though of anything not liberal.

I didn’t think such occurrences were met so skeptically here, professor.

[Andrei Bulba]

Some schools don’t permit you to retake a class for credit, or average the grades, etc. In any event her claim that one C+ ruined her life seems overstated.

Who knows what happened, the lawsuit is outrageous but please, people don’t remember lots of college students and professors being jerks? The amazing thing is running into a conservative professor.

[OldPossum]

The amazing thing is running into a conservative professor.

I think that you're right: there are few conservative professors today. I was so lucky to have nothing but conservative professors. But then I went college in the South in the 1960s. Lucky me.

[Labyrinthos]

One of the worst young lawyers I ever hired had an Ivy League pedigree and was a legend in her own mind. No matter what she may have thought of herself, her research and writing skills sucked. She was so bad that the members of my law firm voted 9 to 0 to terminate her. When I told her why we decided to let her go, she insisted that she was a great writer because she an English major at Harvard where she earned straight A's and scored in the top 1% on the SAT Verbal Exam and the LSAT. She then accused us of firing her because she was a woman and because her politics were left of center. (She apparently never noticed that five of the nine members of my firm at the time and more than half of the associates were female and about 35% of the lawyers and support staff were registered RATs.) In response, I said, “No your research and writing really does suck and you're also an @$$-hole.”