School retaliated when the duo refused to cooperate.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Two former students in Orlando, Florida have lodged a federal lawsuit against their alma mater after claiming they were forced to perform intrusive transvaginal probes on each other as part of their classroom tutelage.
According to local Orlando outlet News 13, the two described having to undergo painful exams in front of other students during diagnostic sonography classes at Valencia College.
The unidentified plaintiffs’ attorney, Chris Dillingham, told WFTV news that when the women attempted to refuse participation, the school retaliated against them.
“They said they’d be blacklisted. Their grades would be reduced,” Dillingham said.
The litigation also describes weekly probes for students in the program, saying they “endured these invasive probes without a modicum of privacy. Plaintiffs would disrobe in a restroom, drape themselves in towels, and traverse the sonography classroom in full view of instructors and other students.”
“A student would place a condom over the probe and then apply generous amounts of lubrication to the probe. In some cases, the student would have to sexually ‘stimulate’ plaintiffs in order to facilitate inserting the probe into plaintiffs’ vaginas,” the lawsuit alleges.
The three defendants named in the lawsuit are Maureen Bugnacki, laboratory technician; Linda Shaheen, clinical and laboratory coordinator for Valencia College’s Medical Diagnostic Sonography Program; and Barbara Ball, the program’s chair, reported CNN.
The lawsuit singles out Ball for purported comments made during one of the sessions: “She allegedly approached one student … during a probing session and stated [she] was ‘sexy’ and should be an ‘escort girl.'”
In a statement obtained by News 13, a Valencia College spokesperson iterated that the exams are voluntary:
The use of volunteers — including fellow students — for medical sonography training is a nationally accepted practice.
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.
To the contrary, the former students’ lawsuit alleges while Valencia positioned the public transvaginal probes as voluntary, in “actual policy and practice … they were not.”