Story Archive

Who’s the Dummy?

When two Valencia College students showed up for orientation at the Orlando, Fla., school, the “TransVag Queen” — a student in her second year — told them the faculty thought people learning to perform transvaginal ultrasound exams should experience the exams themselves. “Valencia positioned these transvaginal probes as voluntary,” says the two students’ resulting lawsuit, “but its actual policy and practice was that they were not.” In order to avoid reduced grades or even blacklisting, the students claim, they had to let other students stick probes into their reproductive organs — and even let them stimulate them to help get the probes in. The college said participation was “voluntary” and “the use of volunteers — including fellow students ... is a nationally accepted practice,” but officials would review it anyway. One of the lawsuit’s allegations is unlikely to be “nationally accepted practice”: a school employee, it says, “allegedly approached one student ... during a probing session and stated [she] was ‘sexy’ and should be an ‘escort girl’.” (AC/CNN) ...If being probed is necessary to learn how to do it, how do male students learn?