U.S. sues university for banning dog from student housing

[lickety_split]

The University of Nebraska won't allow a student suffering from anxiety and depression to keep her therapy dog in student housing.

Comments

[roseofjuly]

Hell to the fuck yeah. A lot of people with disabilities train their own service dogs.

"In essence, anyone can have their doctor say they are anxious and need to have their dog, cat, snake, or monkey, etc.," Horn wrote Cheryl Bressington, the campus affirmative action coordinator, according to the complaint.

FIRE THIS PERSON. What kind of affirmative action coordinator would say that? Do they think that people are really on a mission to get their physicians to lie for them? Snakes are not trained to become therapy animals; monkeys are often illegal for private persons to own and are also not trained to become therapy animals. A documented medical history is not 'their doctor saying that they are anxious.'

GAH.

And shit, I wish my school let me have a dog. I'm a graduate housing director at my university but we live in the halls with the students and we're not allowed pets either, other than fish. I would like a doggie :(

Bressington rejected Hamilton's request to accommodate Butch, saying the school was not required to

[chaya]

I definitely remember a Simpsons ep about it so it must be true

[sihaya09]

I've seen maybe three episodes of the Simpsons ever. I do remember reading this in an online version of the paper, though. The guy was in a motorized wheelchair, and his monkey would aid him in getting things that were out of his reach.

[phamos818]

Pray. For. Mojo.

[roseofjuly]

Which just further evidences her ignorance because I'm pretty sure she was trying to be an asshole here.

I retract my statement, and that is really awesome. I'm going to have to hunt down this documentary because I enjoy watching primates.

[chibi_lurrel]

That person's statement is outrageous and this comment sums it up. We all know how easy it to get your mental health issues documented because you want a pet snake! ugh.

[chaya]

GUYS, WE COULD JUST GET OUR DOCTORS TO LIE ABOUT ANYTHING. NOBODY CAN SOLIDLY PROVE THEY HAVE A REAL DISABILITY. STOP GIVING PEOPLE EXTRA TIME ON TESTS, THEY'RE PROBABLY JUST CHEATING THEIR WAY INTO ANOTHER 20 MINUTES!

[roseofjuly]

And the thing is, it's so difficult sometimes to get qualifications for disability services - I have a student in my class with a certain disorder that's documented, and I encouraged her to contact ODS and get enrolled in case she has difficulty with exam scheduling in the future. But the Office of Disability Services won't recognize her disorder. Luckily we were able to accommodate her for the final exam, but it would've totally sucked if we hadn't be able to - and in the future, she may not be able to be accommodated by other professors.

[chaya]

May I ask what her disorder was?

[roseofjuly]

She had a delayed circadian rhythm that threw her sleep phase all off, so she was very tired in the morning. She even had a difficult time making our 10:35 am class. Apparently her body didn't really wake up until about 11 or 12. (And she was an older woman with documentation for it that I saw.)

[chaya]

I always wondered about people with sleep issues... I knew several people that were on medications to be taken in the morning, and one of the side effects was tiredness/dizziness for the first hour to three hours. Sucks if you have an 8am.

[roseofjuly]

One of the TAs in my class has insomnia and he's on Ambien, and he is a mess in our 10:35 am class. (However, he's also a mess at other times of the day, so I'm not sure whether it's the medication or just him. He just got diagnosed so I'm guessing he's having a hard time.)

[yeats]

awesome service snakes exist too!

[iluvhistory]

That is so cool! Snakes are awesome.

[roseofjuly]

Wow, I was wrong in SO many awesome ways.

Also fucked up that the DOJ wanted to eliminate therapy animals from the service animal category.

[yeats]

<3 i hope you didn't feel like you were being piled on -- i just remembered hearing about the snake program and thought it was too cool to ignore!