A pregnancy discrimination lawsuit was recently filed against a California prison by a female correction officer. According to the lawsuit, the officer, Sarah Coogle, claimed “state prison officials wouldn't provide reasonable accommodations when she was pregnant,” and as a result, she ended up falling “while responding to a fight between inmates at a maximum-security prison.” Unfortunately, the fall resulted in Coogle losing her unborn child and prompted her to file the pregnancy discrimination lawsuit in Kern County Superior Court.What sort of reasonable accommodations was Coogle requesting, though? Well, it turns out that officials at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation allegedly “would not allow her to take a less strenuous position without taking a pay cut and losing her benefits or going on unpaid leave.”The incident itself took place back in January 2017 when Coogle asked “for a position with limited inmate contact, possibly in the prison's accounting or personnel offices, where she wouldn't have to run.” She made the request because she was concerned that her unborn child might be injured “if she had to use force to subdue a prisoner.” However, her request wasn't granted. Instead, she was told her request wasn't possible and that she would “have to either take unpaid leave or accept another position with a cut of about two-thirds of her salary and a loss of benefits.” Coogle said, “I had to remain in my position and risk my child's life."

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Seal; image courtesy of the Government of California via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org

So she continued working in her more dangerous position.Then, in July 2017, Coogle was working in Tehachapi at the California Correctional Institution when she heard “an alarm going off in a nearby building.” While responding to the alarm, she began “running with fellow officers to respond to the potential emergency when she fell on uneven terrain,” according to Coogle. Shortly after the fall, she was “taken to the hospital and had several follow-up visits with doctors and her obstetrician after having abdominal pain.” At that time the child was fine and a heartbeat was still detected. Unfortunately, in September Coogle was rushed to the hospital again due to “excruciating abdominal pain,” and was told by doctors that “her unborn child no longer had a heartbeat and that she lost her baby due to a placental rupture.”As a result, Coogle filed her lawsuit against the prison and is seeking unspecified monetary damages. In addition, Coogle also wants to see a change in the prison's policies and remedy any that discriminate against women, according to her attorney, Arnold Peter.When speaking about the incident, Coogle said, “No man has to bring their child to such a dangerous environment. I just want to earn my paycheck but protect my child at the same time.” Peter also chimed in about the gender discrimination Coogle faced, saying:“It puts women like Sarah in a very terrible situation having to choose between their family and their job. She and her husband are going to have to live with for the rest of their lives.”So far the state prison system has yet to comment on the lawsuit.

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Lawsuit alleges prison didn't accommodate pregnant officerLawsuit alleges prison didn't accommodate pregnant CO