Two former sonography students have filed a lawsuit against a college in Florida, alleging that the institution and employees in its medical diagnostic sonography program retaliated against them after they protested against having to undergo transvaginal ultrasound procedures as part of their sonography training.
According to the complaint filed in the case against Valencia College, new students were told during orientation that the program's faculty believed they should undergo transvaginal ultrasound procedures in order to become better sonographers. While the institution had positioned these procedures as voluntary, the complaint alleges that the exams were not so in actual policy and practice.
"Valencia's established and widespread policy was to browbeat students who did not consent to those invasive probes," the complaint alleges, and students' academic standing as well as their future careers would be threatened until they complied.
The plaintiffs in the case expressed their concern about the exams in the fall of 2013 to program head Barbara Ball, but she told them they could find another school if they did not wish to undergo the studies, according to the complaint. In March 2014, the plaintiffs and other students in the program began practicing ultrasound exams on each other, with the plaintiffs receiving the procedures nearly every week, the complaint alleges.
Among other practices described in the complaint as "bizarre," the document charges that Ball allegedly told one student in the program that she was "sexy" and should be an "escort girl," during one transvaginal ultrasound session. In addition, in some cases, students would have to sexually "stimulate" plaintiffs to facilitate insertion of the probe into the plaintiffs' vaginas, according to the complaint.
"Plaintiffs experienced discomfort and embarrassment each time they had to endure this forced probing of their sexual organs," the complaint said.
After complaining about the forced probes to clinical and laboratory coordinator Linda Shaheen, Shaheen told the plaintiffs they would be academically and professionally penalized for not submitting to the forced probes, according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges that Ball and Shaheen threatened to reduce the plaintiffs' grades and interfere with their future employment opportunities if they did not submit to the probes and conspired with laboratory technician Maureen Bugnacki to retaliate against them. Bugnacki repeatedly threatened to "blacklist" the plaintiffs at central Florida hospitals if they did not submit to the probes.
After continuing to experience individual as well as collective retaliation for voicing their concerns, the plaintiffs then complained to no avail to Valencia College administrators, faculty, and staff, according to the complaint. The plaintiffs eventually resigned from the program.
The complaint also notes that while the transvaginal ultrasound policy was discontinued once the plaintiffs' lawyers got involved, Ball, Shaheen, and other instructors have "conspired to have students petition Valencia State College to reinstate its policy of coerced vaginal probing female students."
"Plaintiffs believe defendants may 'reboot' their policies of coerced vaginal probing of students after the furor of this case dies down unless this court enters an order forbidding the practice of forcing unwilling students to undergo state-mandated reproductive organ probings," the complaint states.
The Valencia College Board of Trustees as well as Ball, Shaheen, and Bugnacki were named as defendants in the suit, which was filed on May 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. The plaintiffs are asking for general and compensatory damages, punitive damages, injunctive relief ordering Valencia "to cease its forced vaginal probing of students," an award of reasonable attorney fees and costs, and pretrial interest on attorney fees.
A spokesperson for Valencia College told AuntMinnie.com that the college has not been served with a complaint, so it would therefore not be able to comment on the litigation. However, the spokesperson said that using volunteers as part of training is a common practice at sonography programs nationwide.
"The use of volunteers -- including fellow students -- for medical sonography training is a nationally accepted practice," the college said in a statement. "Valencia's sonography program has upheld the highest standards with respect to ultrasound scanning for educational purposes, including voluntary participation and professional supervision by faculty in a controlled laboratory setting. Nonetheless, we continue to review this practice and others to ensure that they are effective and appropriate for the learning environment."
