Dropped dental student bites back with $1.7M award
A federal jury awarded more than $1.7 million Tuesday to a former University of Michigan dental student who said she was illegally kicked out of school after she became ensnared in a feud between a dean and faculty members.
The jury said Alissa Zwick's due-process rights were violated when she was dismissed in 2005 after her third year. She had a B average but was told she wasn't performing well in clinical classes.
Zwick claimed she became a target when two professors resisted efforts to accommodate her attention-deficit disorder by giving exams in a separate setting.
An associate dean, Dr. Marilyn Lantz, had a conflict with the professors and used the dispute with Zwick as part of her successful effort to force them out of their positions, the lawsuit said.
But the professors' resignations created a controversy, and Lantz then tried to deflect responsibility for their departure onto Zwick, the lawsuit said.
Lantz warned Zwick not to discuss the matter with other students and then targeted her for "less favorable treatment" than her classmates when Zwick refused to be silenced, the suit said.
"I was used as a tool or pawn by Dr. Lantz," Zwick, 30, said after the verdict.
The dental school has an appeals process for students who are recommended for dismissal, but Zwick's ouster was "rubber-stamped," her attorney Deborah Gordon said.
"Once you're admitted to a public school, you have a property interest," Gordon said. "You can't be dismissed without due process. The jury found the decision was not careful or deliberate."
A message seeking comment was left at Lantz's office. The university said it was disappointed with the verdict.
The school has a responsibility "to exercise careful and deliberate judgment about who should be permitted to graduate from its professional schools," spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham said in a statement.
Lantz was the main defendant, but Gordon expects the university to pay the award. The $1.72 million verdict includes $1 million in punitive damages.
Zwick is pursuing a master's degree in speech pathology at Eastern Michigan University. She was accepted to eight dental schools before choosing Michigan but couldn't get into another after her dismissal.
