Suspended for sickness
Could it be justifiable for IU to kick a student out of school for disrupting class by having a heart attack? What about punishing a soldier returning from Iraq who has a terrifying flashback during a biology lecture? What about a student suffering the same sort of flashback from a sexual assault? It wouldn’t happen here. There would be outrage. There would be lawsuits. It wouldn’t happen because our administration fundamentally recognizes that to punish a student for an unavoidable medical crisis is outrageously discriminatory. Though the editorial board members have much faith in the evolved nature of IU’s administration, we can’t say the same about Eastern Illinois University. Jill Manges, a student at EIU, discovered just how backward her administration really is when she suffered a panic attack during class in early September. Manges suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder due to sexual abuse she experienced eight years ago. The reports state she felt the attack coming on and tried to leave her French history class but was unable to make it out before she collapsed on the floor screaming and sobbing for 10 to 15 minutes.
