A sophomore says her rights were violated when a teacher told her class details about her disability. Her experience is a part of a bigger problem with how society views invisible disabilities.
“It felt extremely unnecessary and just mean, like it just felt like he was being very mean for no reason,” Martinez said.
Tionna Martinez registered for an improv class at the beginning of the semester. When she learned it was a dance class she spoke with the teacher to ask for one accommodation for her disability. A mat to stretch on.
“I have chronic pelvic pain, as a result of being hit by a car,” the theatre major said.
The teacher agreed to accommodate her, but according to Martinez, he ignored her when she asked for it during class. Unable to participate in the stretching she walked out to email her advisor about the situation. The dance teacher followed her.
“He started screaming at me saying that I don’t take the class serious, that he doesn’t care about my pain, and if I wanted accommodations I could just leave the class,” she said.
Martinez isn’t registered with Disability Services, which means the teacher is not required to accommodate her. However, it’s what he did next that the student says violated her privacy.
“He told the entire class that I’m disabled and I was begging for accommodations.”
A student, who wants to remain anonymous, says they were in the class at the time of the outburst. They wrote a statement that says when the teacher finished yelling at Martinez, “he stormed back into the room, slammed the door, and expressed that he was ‘pissed off’. He then proceeded to share the details of his interaction with my peer, including information that felt both personal and unnecessary for the entire class to hear.”
They continued,” I found this to be highly inappropriate, especially given that her disability played a role in the situation. By disclosing this information in front of everyone, it felt like a violation of her privacy.”
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, also known as FERPA, says that a teacher can not disclose a student’s medical records without their consent.
“You know if we all go around the world understanding that we all have struggles and we all have challenges, right, but just some of those might be more readily apparent than others,” Raime Thibodeaux, director of mental health at the LSU student health center said.
Martinez’s treatment is a small part of a bigger problem that people with invisible disabilities face every day. Because their disabilities aren’t obvious, people tend to not take them seriously, which can take a toll on their mental health.
“I fear like, having the same problem with more teachers. It definitely has impacted my will to go to school, and just like, my mental health and my self-esteem,” Martinez said.
We reached out to the Dean of the Music and Dramatic Arts, the Office of Disability Services and to the dance teacher. They were all either unable to comment or did not respond.
Martinez hopes her story will inspire others to speak up for themselves.
“People have disabilities that you can’t see and that doesn’t mean that they are less disabled or their disability isn’t valid and kindness and compassion should be important, especially in school,” Martinez said. “If you ever feel like you’re being discriminated against, you should speak up about it.”
Tionna is working to register with Disability Services and she has switched classes.