A student forced to leave Moravian College due to her grades has sued the school, claiming it failed to live up to its promise to help her overcome her disability.
The lawsuit says Jaclyn Ruggiero suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The Cedar Grove Township woman was a freshman at the Bethlehem college in August 2014, according to the federal lawsuit filed in the eastern district of Pennsylvania.
The lawsuit says an academic official never followed through on a promise to help Ruggiero during her first semester, which she finished with a grade point average of 1.08. With academic help, she received a 2.5 GPA during her second semester, the suit says. She earned a 3.0 GPA during summer school, bringing her overall GPA to 2.03 after her first year, the suit says.
The woman who worked with Ruggiero during the second semester left the college without telling her, the lawsuit says. With no help during her third semester Ruggiero received a 0.91 GPA and an overall GPA of 1.71, the lawsuit says.
She was asked to leave Moravian but appealed the decision, the suit says. By that time she felt the school had become a "hostile environment," the lawsuit says. Ruggiero got another 0.91 GPA, bringing her overall GPA down to 1.53, and she was forced to leave the school in June 2016, her lawsuit says.
"Her experience at Moravian has been scarring," wrote her attorney, Michael D. Raffaele of Bryn Mawr. "She incurred more than $80,000 of student loan debt to Moravian, her dream school and her siblings' alma mater. The stress and strain of struggling not only without proper accommodations ... caused her such significant stress that she was hospitalized."
The lawsuit says she suffered an anxiety attack during a meeting with an academic advisor. She was hospitalized for panic attacks on Jan. 29, 2015, the lawsuit says.
U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Leeson denied a motion filed last week to enter a judgment in favor of Ruggeiro because the college missed a deadline to respond to the lawsuit. According to Leeson, Moravian's insurance company failed to hire an attorney on time due to a miscommunication and the mistake isn't significant enough to award Ruggiero the legal victory.
The lawsuit was filed in March by Ruggiero and her parents, Joseph and Lorraine Ruggiero. It seeks more than $75,000 from the college for each of five separate counts.
The suit says Ruggiero took out $80,000 in student loans co-signed by her parents. Her parents spent $10,000 for summer school tuition, books, equipment and fees, the suit says. Ruggiero is in a different school now but none of her credits transferred because her grades were too low, the suit says.
An attorney for Moravian College didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the case.
Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.