University faces lawsuit alleging it segregated students by gender

CINCINNATI -- A University of Cincinnati student is suing the school in federal court, saying she was told she had to sit and work with other female students and not with male students in a physics lab.

Casey Helmicki filed a gender discrimination lawsuit this month asking the university to stop segregating classes or educational programs by sex.

The university's dean of its biological sciences department says what happened was an isolated incident and that there was no policy forcing students to be segregated.

He says the issue lasted a short time and has been fixed.

Helmicki says a teaching assistant last August told her to work only with other females.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports the professor who created the policy defended it in emails with other officials.