(New York, January 23, 2025) Today, A Better Balance and Covington & Burling LLP filed a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against the New York City Department of Education and the City of New York, challenging their treatment of a pregnant fourteen-year-old 8th grader at her Bronx middle school. The lawsuit alleges that the Defendants violated Title IX, as well as New York State and City law, by failing to provide the student with reasonable modifications for her pregnancy and by failing to stop, fix, and prevent harassment she faced because she was pregnant.
In January 2024, the student disclosed her pregnancy to a trusted school administrator and requested certain modest reasonable modifications for her pregnancy, including bathroom breaks, permission to eat snacks in class, and excused absences for prenatal appointments. She also requested that her privacy be respected: she feared discrimination and harassment by her peers if they found out she was pregnant, and she wanted to continue to focus on her education, without invasive questions about her pregnancy.
Unfortunately, her fears were confirmed when the school administration failed to keep her pregnancy status confidential. Soon, news of her pregnancy spread across the school. She faced constant harassment by teachers, administrators, and other students both on campus and virtually, harassment that continued until she left the school in June 2024.
The school administration also failed to meet its legal obligations by ensuring continued access to her education. Despite the host of laws in place obligating school districts to provide pregnant students with modifications and to stop, fix, and prevent pregnancy-based harassment, the school repeatedly ignored the student’s attempts to work with them. Teachers denied her the snacks and breaks she needed to feel comfortable at school, and ultimately the school forced her into an alternative, off-campus program without comparable coursework and instruction, causing her to fall behind in her courses and resulting in harm to her academic record. When concerns were escalated to the New York City Department of Education’s Title IX office, they did little to protect her from this mistreatment, instead referring the student back to work directly with an unhelpful school administration.
“Schools have legal obligations to protect pregnant students from being excluded from their educational programs and from harassment based on their pregnancies,” said Samantha Hunt, a lawyer and Equal Justice Works fellow at A Better Balance. “These laws exist so that students do not have to choose between their education and their pregnancies. In this case, our client, who is an excellent student, was excluded from an educational program that she wanted, and attempted, to access. She also faced significant emotional duress as a result of the treatment by adults who were meant to educate her, and who had a duty to prevent the same type of harm they unlawfully perpetuated. We are fighting for our client, but we are also fighting to prevent other pregnant students from facing this same harm.”
“Covington is pleased to partner with A Better Balance in seeking to vindicate the rights of a dedicated student who, on account of her pregnancy, was sadly deprived of her rights to an educational environment free from harassment and discrimination,” said Evan Parness, a partner at Covington & Burling.
The student’s complaint is available here, and resources for pregnant and postpartum students are available here.
