Getting your period is unpleasant enough without losing your job over it, but that\u2019s exactly what happened to Alicia Coleman, who was fired from her job after experiencing two period leaks. The former 911-call taker then sued her former employer and that case was dismissed earlier this year. But the American Civil Liberties Union has now stepped in to appeal the case. The organization announced Thursday that it had filed a brief on her behalf in federal court Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Aug. 14.<\/p>\n
According to the document, Coleman was working at a job training and employment agency for people with disabilities, when she experienced two period leaks in 2015. She was going through pre-menopause at the time and experienced sudden onset, heavy menstrual flow. After her first leak, she was told, \u201cshe would be fired if she ever soiled another chair from sudden onset menstrual flow.\u201d After the second, she was fired for failing to \u201cpractice high standards of personal hygiene and maintain a clean, neat appearance while on duty.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
VIDEO: 5 “Healthy” Foods to Avoid Spending Money On<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI loved my job at the 911 call center because I got to help people,\u201d Coleman said in a statement released by the ACLU. \u201cEvery woman dreads getting period symptoms when they\u2019re not expecting them, but I never thought I could be fired for it. Getting fired for an accidental period leak was humiliating. I don\u2019t want any woman to have to go through what I did, so I\u2019m fighting back.\u201d<\/p>\n In the first court case, it was ruled that pre-menopause was not a condition protected from discrimination under the law (specifically Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits workplace discrimination based sex, including \u201cpregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions\u201d), but Coleman and the ACLU are appealing the decision.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n RELATED: NBC Launches Program to Hire More Female Directors in Television<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cEmployers have no business policing women\u2019s bodies or their menstrual cycles,\u201d Andrea Young, ACLU of George executive director, said in a statement. \u201cFiring a woman for getting her period at work is offensive and an insult to every woman in the workplace. A heavy period is something nearly all women will experience, especially as they approach menopause, and Alisha was shamed, demeaned, and fired for it. That\u2019s wrong and illegal in federal law. We\u2019re fighting back.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Getting your period is unpleasant enough without losing your job over it, but that\u2019s exactly what happened to Alicia Coleman, who was fired from her job after experiencing two period leaks. The former 911-call taker then sued her former employer and that case was dismissed earlier this year. But the American Civil Liberties Union has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}