Farrah Abraham Threatens Legal Action Against Harvard Over Alleged 'Educational Abuse'
KEY POINTS
- Farrah Abraham is threatening to sue Harvard after she was allegedly blocked from an online course by a professor
- The professor allegedly told her to turn in an assignment without proofing it but used it as an excuse to suggest she drop the course
- The "Teen Mom" alum also claimed there was a lack of diversity in the course
Farrah Abraham threatened to sue Harvard University, claiming she was the victim of unjust treatment and "educational abuse."
During an interview with TMZ, the former "Teen Mom" star claimed that while taking an online course as part of a creative writing Master's program with professor Patricia Bellanca, she allegedly experienced a "Chrissy Teigen situation" and was kicked out by her teacher without any follow-up explanation.
"Basically an elder teacher in a position of power with a male dean blocked me out of a class and also said lies about my work," she alleged, before claiming that neither her professor nor the dean has returned any of her calls or emails.
Abraham alleged that her professor encouraged her to submit a "class activity" without checking it over and then used the assignment to encourage her to drop the course altogether.
"I will be taking legal action against Harvard. I properly gave them time," she told a TMZ camerawoman while wearing a Harvard sweatshirt. "I sadly had to write a review on Niche, on Yelp and on Google Maps because no one was getting back to me."
Abraham detailed her grievances in her Yelp review, which was discovered by fans, against Bellanca and Dean Robert Neugeboren.
Harvard did not confirm that the alleged incident occurred. A spokesperson for the university told TMZ that it does not comment on individual student academic matters due to federal student privacy laws.
Meanwhile, Abraham alleged that there were high school students taking the same online course as her, despite her paying a "higher rate" to attend.
The TV personality, who is of Syrian, Italian and Danish descent, according to Page Six, also claimed that there was discrimination against younger women and teen moms and that she was the "most person of color" in the course.
Abraham further alleged that Harvard's system was "completely wrong" and "abusive" and that she felt the university needs to update its "archaic" academic standards.
"Harvard is a joke. It is a scam. That's my Harvard review," she told the outlet.
Abraham added that while she was happy about putting the past behind her, she remains upset about her alleged treatment.
"I'm happy I got my official transcripts and I can move on with my life, but wow, that was an awful, awful environment to do school in. I don't deserve it, and I treat myself better than that," she told TMZ.
TMZ also got a copy of Abraham's review, in which she called out her professor and the dean for allegedly ignoring her attempts to reach out to them and claimed that the teachers in the program "do not know how to teach online."
"I would advise Harvard is not a safe nor credible school to attend. Educational abuse, deny student education, unsafe, discriminate, slander and poor mental health and writing and center help," her 1-star review read. "Harvard is pathetic and is educationally abusive to students."
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