"AITA for filing a lawsuit against my university and getting 5 professors fired?"
"AITA for filing a lawsuit against my university and getting 5 professors fired?"
This is complicated. This happened a few years ago, I was 19 at that time. I was a sophomore in college. Before around 1 hour of the midterm exam, I got into a low speed car accident, the damages on our cars were very minimal, I did not attend the midterm because of the accident. My car’s tire was damaged so it couldn’t work. The fault was on the other driver by 100%.
So the next day I filed an official excuse to the college excuse committee with the car accident details. They rejected my excuse. They said something like “you should have used a taxi to attend the exam” since in my university you have an additional 30 mins to enter the exam after it started.
The accident happened 60 mins before the exam, it got processed (documented…etc) in around 30 mins. So I had half an hour to go to the university, but my car’s tire couldn’t work.
After my excuse got rejected, I sent one email as a formal request to their rejection decision, to the excuse committee and CC’d the college academic affairs, college dean, department chairman, and my advisor. They ignored my email. I sent one reminder to that email after 2 weeks, they still ignored it.
After a long time of waiting, 1 week before the final exams, I told my brother who’s a lawyer about this, he went to them to explain my situation, but it didn’t work. So one of his friends who’s a lawyer specialized in education told me that I should file a lawsuit and that he’ll be my lawyer. So I filed the lawsuit.
After 5 months, I won the lawsuit and finally took the midterm that I didn’t attend. I didn’t request this to be on the local newspapers because I thought it will damage my college’s reputation and maybe affect my chances of getting a job after I graduate.
The reason I’m writing this: The college excuse committee (4 professors and my department chairman) got fired after that. All the professors in my department didn’t like me at all. Even now in present, they still don’t like me.
I’m trying to apply to study a master’s in civil engineering but one of the requirements is that I have recommendation letters from the past professors in my department. I reached out to them, they said no. They don’t want to write a recommendation letter to me.
One of the reasons too is that I barely got a job after graduation. Because it turns out that my new department chairman was putting in a bad word about me whenever a company is trying to employ me through college alumni.
EDITS:
Edit: I’m from a country whose native language is not English. The education system may be different.
Edit 2: After looking at the comments, I’ve decided to talk to a lawyer again about the new department chairman for defamation (badmouthing me when companies wanted to employ me & costing me jobs) and go to the university again & meet with the academic affairs dean to sort out the recommendation letter problem (because department professors who are still in the university refuse to write me a recommendation letter for my master’s degree despite my good behavior & grades)
Here's what top commenters had to say about this one:
Turbowsk1 said:
That is reprisal, go back to your lawyer friend and see what they have to say about it. Good luck. NTA.
cultqueennn said:
Nta. That's the sad part with RIGHTFULLY complaining and exercising your rights. They won't make you forget all will absolutely hold it against you, cuz you are the reminder of their incompetence and how they can be held accountable. They're not above the law, even though they often think they are.
What they're doing is again, against the law. Defamation/slander, whatever it's called since is costing you money/holding you back educationwise. Good on you!
I_eat_dingo_babies said:
NTA. It sounds like the professors/excuse committee did not follow outlined procedures that you were entitled to since and ignored your appeal and a discussion with an attorney. You don't get into the merits of the case that you won - was that a procedure issue (you didn't get to make a proper appeal) or on the accident (you were shaken up and the excuse committee didn't give you proper leave).
Taking the big picture view, students shouldn't have to take an exam immediately after a car accident and is ridiculous to tell you to take a taxi. Even if you made it to the exam, it's unfair to expect you to perform like you would have if you hadn't been in an accident.
You said it was minor but you couldn't drive it afterwards because of a tire, that doesn't seem minimal to me. These professors were hardliners and it wouldn't surprise me if there were other issues with their actions on the committee. Don't blame yourself for them being fired, it wasn't your fault. Sorry you struggled to get a job because of it.
4y4cchi said:
NTA, this world sucks. You did good for standing up for your rights. These people involved got their ego bruised so they are taking revenge on you this way. Horrible and I'm sorry you have to go through this.
Mehitabel9 said:
A sternly-worded letter from your attorney to the dean or chancellor of the school about how you are being retaliated against, and threatening a second lawsuit, might take care of this.
RexDust said:
NTA You're in the right but sometimes being in the right means the people in the wrong hold a grudge. No amount of lawsuits can force people to be nice to you.