Teachers Discriminating against students

[harkness1989]

I know I’m a little out of the topic of discussion or category entirely, but please read…I have about 200 pages of evidence(my explanations as well as course requirements, student handbook policies) and several audio recordings as well as several agreeable students from multiple semesters and even countless RN's who vouch for the schools unethical decisions and favoritism tendencies.

To make it short and to the point, I had been aware the previous semesters of the unorganized and unfair dealings that the schools teachers use. In saying that come the last semester myself and others were prepared by secretly recording many of the conversations between the teachers and ourselves if/when came the time to justify the truth with hard evidence...

Note: I know whoever is reading this is probably thinking this guy is just mad because he failed but if you can honestly read this with an open mind and open heart then I would be grateful - if only for just taking the time to read it...but also any helpful advice or contacts that could help...thanks...

Real quick myself and many others are accusing some(not all) of the teachers of favoritism, grade manipulation, misguidance on many things(personal advising meetings where they would knowingly misguide on testing focal points, not keep their word about teachings and advice given)…………We have audio recordings of these teachers contradicting their own teachings as well as the other teachers, our assigned textbooks and what we have been taught during our duration in nursing school, as well as the national standard or rule. When approaching some of these teachers in a private meeting/setting and confronted them about possible mistakes they may have made or possibly were unaware that they said/taught was incorrect(all this in a professional manner and tone) some of these teachers would get very defensive and harp on the fact that I am just a student and they have been an RN for X amount of years and that they were correct in what they taught or advised...all without any explanation or reasoning behind any of it...……..at the time during class they would always stress that if what they say was different from that of the book, then always go with the books info because that is where our test questions would come from......which would in-turn lead to us trying to save our grades as students by wanting explanations after the exams to what their own made up personal experience/opinion test questions would come from and then again they usually never had explanations, just jump on the defensive again...…...later I found out that the students who they seemed to favor would privately meet with them and some students claimed to get 10 or 15 questions (out of 45-65 questions) given back to them secretly. I know this is true, because at mid-term I knew who was passing and who was failing, and would talk to students and at the end some would be 30 plus points ahead of where their point totals should be.

We have audio of them admitting to helping some students with exact same situations and then letting others fail, all by personal opinions of the individual.

I myself worked full time as a tech in the hospital at nights and school 5 days a week from 8-5pm. I literally learned to live and function off 3 to 4 hours of sleep per night...….now this was my less than ideal situation, and I am not blaming any of this on that, but it gives insight into how much effort and stress that went into this last semester. The teachers Im guessing got a negative view of me simply on the fact that I always looked tired and probably uninterested in their lectures......in my defense I was always recording the lectures to go back over them later and take my own better notes, and the other reason was because I could not focus in the class room with 100 plus students, being sleep deprived and easily distracted by sounds and talking etc......that is the only reason I gave to get on their bad side, because I have always made sure that I handle myself in a professional and friendly manner.

ALMOST DONE: 2 days before graduation, I was told that they were not going to allow me to makeup a presentation that I overslept for, that was worth a large percent of our grade in peds...…...on top of that they allowed another student(who was infact in my same group) to not only makeup the same assignment, but redo it, because she would have failed if they did not allow her to make it up. Another student who failed and was going through the grievance process with the school, had many of the same arguments as myself and even got a representative from the NAACP who threatened a lawsuit and later found out that she was cleared without having to do anything. There is literally so so much more evidence and accusations but I am not going to mention it here.

I hired a lawyer to write a letter and investigate, and he found in the handbook that a teacher has the authority to allow/deny any individual student a chance of a makeup assignment that he/she missed or even to retake a test all on the basis of personal choice(basically if they liked them or not, or were feeling good/bad in that exact instance). He told me that even with all this evidence that it would cost a lot to go to court and they even probably have the upper hand being a private school and with their policies to be able to do whatever you want to your students grading wise.

Listen I was cheated out of my degree, career and future as an RN...…….I nearly killed myself for that degree.....now I doubt I can get accepted to any school around here because I failed. The worst part about all of it was that they had me thinking that maybe they were right and this career was just not for me because of some low test scores(granted I was cheated out of points and given incorrect test questions and answers) but it wasn't until the exit hesi exam(a national and untampered with test) that I scored near the best in my entire class and via review highlighted all the areas that we were taught during all of nursing school and my real proof that I knew the info and 150 points higher than our class average score...…..according to statistics it put my chances of passing the NCLEX first time at a greater than 98 %.

If you can help me with anything, attorney, or professional who deals with this sort of thing, contact numbers or similar cases from the past that students fought and won...……...This school (BHCLR) should not be allowed to be teaching students, they have scored lower than 80% for the first time NCLEX pass rating for several years, 69% and then for my graduating class they somehow manipulated the numbers to try and save their accreditation(the AR state board of nursing revealed that they had 216 students take the NCLEX that semester with 170 passing and still only getting 78%...by the way my class only graduated with 70 students....somehow they got the state board to keep them from losing their accreditation and government benefits......please this school should not be enrolling future RN students and then miseducating them for their own personal gain to keep their jobs safe as teachers and administrators and making sure that there will be a % of students to fill the seats for the next semester etc...

Thank you for reading my depressing situation...

[beekee]

Listen to your lawyer. Move on. At the end of the day, you failed because you slept through your presentation. None of the other students matter, no matter how unfair it seems.

[falconersys]

I'm sorry you had such a poor experience. I want to break down a few things.

1. You chose to work a grueling job during school. I understand that not everyone has the luxury to not work or take out loans, but you are also choosing to not set yourself up for success by working a job like that. If you already worked nights, why not find a slower job that would allow you some time to study? My school made it very clear that work could never come before school.

2. The instructors are only human too, so I can't necessarily blame them for looking at you in a negative light if you were falling asleep during lectures. I understand you listened to the lectures later, but the instructors likely don't know that, and don't care. It makes you appear outwardly uninterested..

3. Which leads into my third point, instructors helping some students over others. Instructors can and will play favorites with students who show interest vs others that they see as uninterested or uncaring.

4. You overslept on your project. You need to take the blame there. Again, this comes back to the instructors helping some students over other based on how the instructors perceive the students. The instructors do not have to let you make up something that you overslept on.

5. You were not "cheated" out of your degree. If everything above was summarized accurately, there are several things you could have changed to set yourself up in a better position to pass.

The only way this can end your career and future as an RN is if you choose to let it.

[Workitinurfava, BSN, RN]

If that is your real email, and name, take it down so you won't be traced. I know you are hurt because of failing the program but you don't want this fight. Move in silence and put yourself in a better position to do well like I mentioned in my other post. Life is not always fair and the school will most likely not have to answer to your claims. I am just trying to help you out. If the school indeed did miscalculate grades, would you be upset if it helped you pass? I am in no way agreeing to this but it may not be what you think. I am not sure of all of the details of how and why. I don't want to know. Regardless of what the school does, an NCLEX still has to be taken. I would try to get back into that school if it is the only school you can get into. If you can find a better school, than go to that one. You already put a lot of work in. Maybe the school could honor some of your classes. You could even see about getting this post taken down by the moderators on allnurses. There is so much identifying information in it and the other one you put up.

[TriciaJ, RN]

Did you say this was a private school? The general consensus on this forum is to be very cautious about enrolling in a private school. Some do have stellar reputations; others will take anyone's money and not deliver anything.

I'm wondering if your lawyer is another entity who took your money and gave you nothing. Who accredited your school? Have you spoken to them? Why don't you talk to your dissatisfied classmates and see if a few of you can't get an appointment with someone at state level; bring your evidence.

Have you tried your local elected representatives? You are going to have to play a long game here, if you're up for it. I think the best you can hope for is to get some of your money back, then apply to a real school. I doubt you'll get credit for any of the time you put in, but if their course material was worth anything, hopefully it'll be easier next go-round.

I'm so sorry this has happened to you. I'm wishing you the best of luck.

[Persephone Paige, ADN]

In your title it says 'discriminating,' do you fall into a protected class? If so, you might go that route and get a quicker outcome.

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

Threads merged

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

I'm so sorry for what you've been through. However, you CAN apply to other schools. Take a few days to think this over but you CAN succeed.

I did move this to its own topic also and I removed your email/name.

[studentnurseASN]

That sucks. I hope you can get your degree regardless of the situation.

There are schools that can take you if you passed most of your RN courses. Some programs may have to take their competency test to see if they will accept credit for your courses. Others will accept your grades directly.

There are still a lot of options outside of where you live. Don't limit yourself.

Always CYA whenever you are working with people. Nursing faculty included.

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

If there is an appeals process, then try it. It can't hurt.

But you do need to figure out where you went wrong here. Because this is not all the school's fault.

Working full time nights and attending school 8 to 5, I am really not surprised that you failed. There are only so many hours in a day.

I don't want to beat you up for sleeping through your presentation. But that's the kind of thing that makes you fail a course. I failed sociology over 20 years ago for sleeping through the midterm. I had been doing well up until that point. It sucked, and I felt terrible about it. And I never slept through another midterm again.

Your post suggests low quality teachers, but doesn't suggest discrimination from the info you shared.

I think you need to take a look at yourself here. What can you personally do to ensure you pass next time? There will be dumb nursing instructors, petty instructors, other students may brown-nose, and you may get conflicting info, but what can you do to give yourself the best chance?

Once you have answered that question, get back in there and do it right this time.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

Secretly recording conversations with professors and administrators??????

If you are in a 2 party state, that's illegal. If not, you're fine in that regard, but still, it sounds like you spent more time collecting evidence- (hundreds of pages of evidence-"your explanations" included, whatever that means) and trying to catch your professors in minor to major inconsistencies -than actually studying the material.

As for discrimination-you have to be a member of a protected class who is being persecuted for that reason (race, religion, etc.) in order to claim that. "Favoritism," while unfair, is not illegal. You can't claim discrimination against students who sleep in class, for example.

A very important lesson to learn here is that if you ever give others who dislike you and have power over you a legitimate reason to nail you, they absolutely WILL. Sleeping through a project gave them just that-a defendable and documented reason to fail you. YOU gave them the ammunition they needed.

You may well have been treated unfairly, but nevertheless it seems to me that some self reflection may still be in order here if you want to avoid these kinds of things in the future.

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

per ToS, we cannot offer any legal advice, but I would appeal, then move on from there