MILTON, MASS. (WHDH) - A Curry College student is suing the school over the alleged mistreatment of her and her service dog.
Isabella Scott may be legally blind, but right now she is fighting to see a change after she says the school consistently discriminated against her and her service dog, O’Hara, sometimes putting the two in danger by forcing them to be separated.
“I am terrified that people think that this is something that is OK to do,” Scott said with O’Hara nearby.
The lawsuit alleges that Scott was forced not only to tie up her service animal but often had to put her in a cage — meaning the two would be separated.
“They have had me tie her to a locked door in a storage room where they kept formaldehyde and dissected organs and they made me do that for 2.5 hours every week, for 15 weeks,” Scott explained.
She said that these acts go beyond mistreatment and leaves them both in the dark and potentially in danger.
“What if there were to be a fire? How would I get out of the building?”
Curry College has responded to the lawsuit with a statement that reads:
“Curry College has an extremely strong and continuing commitment to ensuring an accessible, equitable and inclusive learning and living environment for all students with disabilities. We have a faculty who are deeply invested in working with individual students in a way that supports their academic and personal development and recognizes their unique strengths, and we provide accommodations that promote growth and self-advocacy in a community that honors and appreciates difference. Any allegations of mistreatment of a support animal on our campus are unfounded and inaccurate; in both policy and in fact, Curry College is committed to partnering collaboratively with students requiring the important service and emotional support these animals provide.”
According to Scott, the issues at Curry run deeper than just this one alleged incident.
She is asking a judge to order the college to make changes to their facilities and policy to become fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
She now says that this lawsuit is about inspiring change for the future.
“It’s not ok to treat people like this. It’s not okay to dehumanize people. To tell them that they don’t have their civil rights,” she said.
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