A 911 dispatcher says “menstrual flow” at work is why she was fired in a new ACLU lawsuit

Atlanta Journal-Constitution/screenshot

A Georgia woman who had worked at the Bobby Dodd Institute for years has the American Civil Liberties Union on her side after, she says, she was fired for “sudden onset menstrual flow.” Alisha Coleman has filed a lawsuit alleging that she was fired because by her employer of nearly a decade because of two incidents of “accidental period leak,” in her words.

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According to USA Today, Coleman was fired from her position as a 911 call center dispatcher in 2016 because she failed to “practice high standards of personal hygiene and maintain a clean, neat appearance while on duty” and she says this had to with work accidents in Aug. 2015 and April 2016.

The first time it happened, Coleman says she an office chair was ruined and she reported this to her employer. She says she was told to go home and change and was warned that if this happened again “she would be fired if she ever soiled another chair from sudden onset menstrual flow.”

The second time it happened, Coleman accidentally stained a carpet on the way to the bathroom. Although, she cleaned the floor with bleach and disinfectant, she was fired, true to the warning she got the first time.

“I loved my job at the 911 call center because I got to help people,” she 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.”

The Bobby Dodd Institute said in a statement that there’s more to the story than Coleman is saying.

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“Our mission is to help those with disabilities and disadvantages find work and keep work,” the statement reads. “While we cannot share specific details about this case because it’s become a legal matter, please know there is more to this story than is being portrayed by those who are suing us. We can say we followed proper protocol and went the extra mile to avoid dismissal in this case, as we would for any of our employees.”

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