A pregnant law student asked to advance her exams and was denied until her friends intervened

() –– Brittany Lovely is expecting her first child in early December. His final exams at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington are scheduled for the same date.

He was then surprised when he asked the university if he could take the exams at another time and was denied.

“I wasn’t really trying to make anything crazy happen,” Lovely said. “I asked if I could take the exam earlier.”

He calendar The law school’s fall exam schedule runs from Dec. 6 to Dec. 13, with Dec. 16 to Dec. 18 as a possible exam postponement date. Postponement dates are used in various situations, such as if a student becomes ill, if there is a death in the family, or if a student gives birth to a child during or immediately before the exam period, indicates the university website.

Lovely said her expected pregnancy date is December 2 and her in-person exam is scheduled for December 13.

Studies have shown that first-born babies are less likely to arrive on time. They are born earlier or later than expected, previously reported. Lovely, who is expecting her first child, falls into that category, meaning her baby may be born after the designated postponement dates.

Lovely is a Black woman and highlighted the shocking maternal mortality rates for Black people in Washington. While black people make up about half of all births in Washington, they account for 90% of all pregnancy-related deaths, according to data from the District of Columbia Maternal Mortality Review Commission.

Faced with an unsustainable situation, Lovely asked for help.

In September, she spoke with a university Title IX officer who was “fabulous and understanding” with her requests for help, Lovely said. He Title IX is the 1972 federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in schools that receive federal aid, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

The Title IX official and Lovely proposed two options: take the exam early when the final period opened or take it at the same time as everyone else in the class, but from home, which would likely be a few days after giving birth.

Both options, which the Title IX official gave to the registrar and the Office of Academic Affairs, were denied, Lovely said.

Lovely asked the Title IX official if he could meet with the officials who denied the request. On Oct. 15, Lovely said she met with school officials via Zoom to discuss the reason for the denials.

In their meeting, officials cited the university’s honor code and a school-wide policy that prohibits anyone from taking exams early, Lovely said. The school did not confirm the meetings or what was discussed.

“The meeting was horrible,” Lovely said. “They said that I had to go in person at all costs to take this exam, and the only times I could do it were between the 13th and the 18th, with the possibility that, in case of urgency, they could extend it until the morning of the 20th” .

Officials also suggested that Lovely could have someone sit outside the exam room with her newborn baby so she could take breaks while taking the test and breastfeed, she said.

In early November, Lovely said he tried again to get some accommodation for his situation, although this time he drafted a legal memo that described Title IX, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and cited what had happened.

Lovely sent the memo to the dean of the law school on November 10. She said the dean responded by saying he did not deal with pregnancy adjustments and referred her back to the Title IX officer. The faculty did not comment on the response.

After the frustration of trying to move forward with one voice, Lovely’s friends pushed and added thousands of voices.

Some of Lovely’s friends created a petition to support her request for an accommodation for her final exams. Lovely says the petition has already reached more than 7,000 students, faculty, alumni and community members nationwide.

“I was trying to resolve this in a non-confrontational way. “It seems very new to me,” said Lovely.

On Friday, the school decided to open an additional deferral date in January, aligned with previous years’ deferral deadlines, Lovely said.

The resolution was reached “only after all the public outcry,” Lovely said.

When contacted a university spokesperson, they did not confirm Lovely’s account of the challenges she faced, or whether she will be allowed to take the exams in January or when a decision will be made.

“Georgetown is committed to providing a supportive and understanding environment for pregnant and parenting students. “We have reached a mutually acceptable solution with the student who raised her concerns,” the spokesperson said.

“Georgetown offers academic and practical resources to help a student complete her degree while pregnant or a parent, including pregnancy-related accommodations from the Office of Title IX Compliance and disability accommodations from our Academic Resource Center. “Georgetown does not comment publicly on the details of individual students’ issues,” the spokesperson added.

Lovely hopes the school implements policy changes in the future.

“What I would really like to see is that the school, and I guess law schools in general, would like to see their role in supporting their students and really step up to the plate,” he said. “I would hope for a policy change at this point by the school, just to make sure no one else has to go through something like this again.”