During a fall 2016 marketing class at Union County College in New Jersey, Sahna ElBanna scored A's on her midterm and final, which were worth 60% of her grade. Yet her professor Toby Grodner gave her an "F" in the course, the Associated Press reports. This grade — the only F she's gotten in college — could stop her from graduating on time and force her to spend money making up the class. Now, she's suing the school on the grounds that Grodner allegedly discriminated against her for being Muslim.
ElBanna took her first course with Grodner last spring. According to the suit, throughout his lectures, he referred to Muslims as terrorists. She put up with it to get through the class and received a B+, then signed up for Principals of Marketing with him to fulfill her graduation requirements. There, the anti-Muslim remarks reportedly escalated, and Grodner even asked students what ethnicity they were.
"You're in the classroom each week. (The instructor) is using the terms Muslim and and terrorist interchangeably. Every moment you are in that class, you feel subhuman. You feel you are a terrorist," her lawyer Tariq Hussain told NJ.com.
When ElBanna defended her culture, Grodner allegedly asked her questions like "Doesn't your religion believe men are superior to women?" and "Do you even pray five times a day?"
"She was robbed of her dignity in the classroom," the lawsuit reads.
Grodner admitted that ElBanna got A's on her midterm and final but said she failed eight other projects. But ElBanna says she actually received A's on several of these assignments, which she's hung on to. She reportedly tried to ask the administration to reconsider her grade, but Grodner wouldn't sign the form necessary to begin that process. Union County College is currently investigating her claims.
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