Two plaintiffs who have filed a lawsuit against Tennessee State University are seeking $2 million for pregnancy and parent status discrimination.
Former students Erin Clark and Terrill Wakefield were expecting a child together while also applying for funding for a Ph.D. program following the completion of their graduate degrees at TSU. Their lawsuit states that, during the application process, Wakefield was unofficially informed that he received funding for a graduate assistantship, but Clark was initially told that she would not receive any funding “due to her pregnancy.”
Though Clark ultimately received funding for the program, the suit claims she was met with reluctance by TSU’s director of graduate student services Andrea Tyler. Clark was far along in her pregnancy during the application process and due to have her child soon after the program started. Initially, she didn’t tell Tyler about her pregnancy. When later asked by Tyler, however, Clark communicated that she had child care arrangements in place and “was planning to take minimal time off.”
According to the filing:
Dr. Tyler asked how Plaintiff Clark was going to start school on Monday, as ‘those first few weeks are critical for [Plaintiff Clark’s] health and the baby,’ or words to that effect. Dr. Tyler then said, ‘I run a tight ship’ and that she has ‘very little tolerance on [her] fellows not doing what they’re supposed to do,’ or words to that effect. Dr. Tyler explained that she is trying to prepare future leaders. Dr. Tyler stated, ‘I was really concerned with you having a newborn baby … and trying to come in as one of my fellows, quite frankly,’ or words to that effect.
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Dr. Tyler also made it clear to Plaintiff Clark that she would be ‘carefully watching’ Plaintiff Clark’s performance, and that no exceptions of any kind would be made for Plaintiff Clark. Dr. Tyler said that she was ‘sympathetic’ to Plaintiff Clark because she has children herself, but that it was ‘bad timing’ for the program. Dr. Tyler told Plaintiff Clark that at the doctoral level, ‘in a STEM degree, that’s where your focus needs to be’ and that it would have been ‘better if you would have waited’ to apply, or words to that effect.
Both Clark and Wakefield were expected to teach when the semester began. They provided advanced notice and updates as to when they would need time off for the birth of their baby. The filing states that Clark wasn’t given her teaching assignment until the day before her first class began, though other students were given information about their teaching schedules sooner. It also states that some students perceived Clark’s assignment as “the most demanding of the program because of the lack of assistance and resources from the professor of the class compared with support reportedly provided by other professors to their teaching assistants, as well as the necessary travel between two campuses that would require Plaintiff Clark to pack up and physically transport lab equipment, which was not a requirement for other classes that were taught at TSU’s main campus.”
As Clark was supposed to start teaching, the start date of her program was moved to October. An email from Tyler explained “‘The change in the start date will allow you time to have the baby without any stress. I do believe that this is the best course of action for you and your family.’” Wakefield’s teaching schedule was also pushed until after the anticipated birth of their baby.
Both plaintiffs depended on funding from the program because they were not allowed to have other jobs based on its requirements, the suit claims. Clark had previously expressed this to Tyler. The filing states that neither Clark nor Wakefield received any kind of stipend from their program and had to move back to Memphis, where they were from, and temporarily stay in a motel before a family member was able to accommodate them. Neither Clark nor Wakefield was able to return to the program, citing “the upheaval and expense of moving.”
The lawsuit also alleges that another Ph.D. student received accommodation for having long COVID “without a pushback of any start date or an obligatory period of absence from the program.” Additionally, it states that the plaintiffs were not able to file a complaint through TSU because the the university didn’t “publish and widely distribute” information about pregnancy and parental status discrimination, nor did it have a serving Title IX coordinator when the alleged discrimination occurred.
The lawsuit accuses TSU of placing “unrealistic expectations” on Clark, failing to provide “reasonable accommodations,” and “[penalizing] Plaintiffs because of their parenting status when it unilaterally pushed back their program start dates and stopped their funding and sole source of income, as required by the program, for requesting temporary accommodations at the time of and shortly following the birth of their child.” The filing claims that the “plaintiffs have suffered the loss of equal educational opportunities, both in the past and in the future.”
TSU could not be reached for comment. The initial case management conference will take place on Sept. 26.
