By EMS1 Staff
FORT BENNING, Ga. — A former 911 dispatcher is suing her employer for allegedly firing her because she experienced unanticipated menopause symptoms, despite working there for almost a decade.
NY Daily News reported that Alisha Coleman is suing the Bobby Dodd Institute because she said they fired her after she unexpectedly got her period while sitting in an office chair.
“I loved my job at the 911 call center because I got to help people,” Coleman said. “Every woman dreads getting period symptoms when they’re not expecting them, but I never thought I could be fired for it. Getting fired for an accidental period leak was humiliating. I don’t want any woman to have to go through what I did, so I’m fighting back.”
Coleman’s statement said the company fired her because she did not “practice high standards of personal hygiene and maintain a clean, neat appearance while on duty.”
The case was originally dismissed, but the ACLU of Georgia is helping her fight the decision on the grounds that it is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which forbids discrimination based on gender, including “pregnancy, childbirth and related conditions.”
The Bobby Dodd Institute has not commented on the lawsuit.