For the first time, Valencia College has responded to a federal lawsuit over claims of forced vaginal examinations of students in an ultrasound training class.
In the lawsuit, filed Thursday, two former students claimed they were forced to undergo what they described as painful exams in front of other students during diagnostic sonography classes at the college.
The women said they felt they would get a lower grade for the class if they didn't submit to the vaginal examinations, and named three instructors in their lawsuit.
In a statement released Monday to News 13, a Valencia College spokeswoman stressed 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.
The two students who filed the suit claimed their teachers threatened to lower their grades or blacklist them from future employment if they did not participate in the weekly internal probes.
"This was a stressful event for them to have to disrobe in a bathroom, walk across a classroom clad in a towel, sit down at a sonography station and then be probed," said attorney Christopher Dillingham, who is representing the students.
Dillingham said the college and three instructors — Linda Shaheen, Barbara Ball and Maureen Bugnaki — conspired to retaliate against the two women. The complaint alleges from the fall of 2013 to the spring of 2014, the two students endured an "extremely invasive and often painful" ultrasound procedure.
"They were told that if they did not like being probed, they should go to another school," Dillingham said.
Other Orlando medical schools, including the University of Central Florida, Adventist University of Health Sciences and the American College for Medical Careers do not practice intimate exams with students in the classroom.
In the complaint, one of the defendants, Barbara Ball, was accused of approaching a student during an internal probe, calling the student "sexy" and saying she should be an escort girl. The complaint also questions why "anatomically correct simulators designed specifically for students to practice sonography exams" were not used instead of students.
"I don't see why they didn't use the dummies," said Yani Salgado, a health sciences student at Valencia.
The lawsuit also said the two women had clinical practice at Central Florida hospitals, where students could practice on real patients in a medical setting. Yet, the student to student probes continued.
"If they did not submit to it, they would be punished," Dillingham said.
He added the two women did not continue their studies and left Valencia's sonography program.
Dillingham said he wants his clients to be compensated for their pain, suffering, humiliation, time and money they spent to enroll in the sonography program.