University of Moncton student says school refuses to accommodate learning disability

CTV Atlantic: N.B. nursing student alleges discrimination A nursing student at the Universite de Moncton says she’s been discriminated against because of her learning disability.

A second-year nursing student at the University of Moncton says the school has refused to accommodate her learning disability and even threatened to expel her as she pursues a formal complaint.

Brigid Stanford-Finnerty has been diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety. She says she is facing a lost year of schooling because of a failing grade in her clinical trials – something she says she could have passed had she been given additional time.

“I can attain the objectives. It just takes me a little bit longer during a regular shift,” says Stanford-Finnerty. “I end at the same time as everyone else, it’s just to master those techniques, as I’m a tactile learner, it takes me a few more practices.”

She has earned a previous degree and says she has solid grades in the theory portions of her course, because those professors allowed her more time to complete her work.

Stanford-Finnerty took her concerns to nursing staff to try and overturn her failing clinical mark, but says she was threatened with expulsion. She also alleges she was subjected to derogatory comments.

“What I live with every day, that’s difficult,” she says. “That I found strategies to cope with, to succeed with, was compared merely to a handicap in golf? I found that absolutely unacceptable, grotesque, I would say.”

Now she’s moving forward with a formal complaint against the faculty of nursing in an effort to overturn her failing mark. Meanwhile, the university’s Student Federation says it’s not the first complaint it’s heard about the school of nursing.

“So far, the only way they’ve been working on her problem is really to discriminate her, intimidate her into not following the pursuit of her complaints,” says Roxann Guerrette, president of the Student Federation.

With a failing grade on her record, Stanford-Finnerty must spend 12 months outside of school before she can return. The failing grade also prevents her from transferring to a nursing program elsewhere.

Ultimately, she says she simply wants her finish her course and encourage others with learning disabilities to continue their education.

The University of Moncton could not be reached for comment.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Cami Kepke