A Muslim student has been granted a temporary restraining order against West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine as part of a lawsuit contending she was unfairly kicked out.

The restraining order, filed in Kanawha County Circuit Court, will allow Iram Qureshi to resume classes and her clinical rotation today, while appealing her dismissal.

In her suit against the Lewisburg medical school and its Board of Governors, Qureshi contends administrators singled her out and treated her badly from the start.

Qureshi, of Dublin, Ohio, graduated with honors from Ohio State University in 2005. She enrolled at WVSOM the following August.

When she began the program, she requested a female partner for religious reasons during a lab that requires chest and pelvic manipulation.

Administrators denied the request, even though the president of Islamic Medical Association of North America spoke to the osteopathic school's associate dean on her behalf, according to the suit.

The same request was granted to other female students, Qureshi said in her complaint.

James McQueen, Qureshi's lawyer, said the school has been "extremely unyielding" toward his client and she has encountered harassment and discrimination from certain administrators and students.

McQueen of the Charleston law firm Frost Brown & Todd said the harassment began when Qureshi notified faculty that some students had violated rules by obtaining an exam from a previous year.

He said Qureshi's name was leaked as the whistle-blower, which resulted in "bullish and threatening" behavior toward her from her fellow students.

The school also violated student confidentiality laws when it allowed her grades to be posted publicly, he said.

On June 20, Qureshi received a letter from the school's president, Olen Jones Jr., notifying her that she had been dismissed.

A Muslim student has been granted a temporary restraining order against West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine as part of a lawsuit contending she was unfairly kicked out.

The restraining order, filed in Kanawha County Circuit Court, will allow Iram Qureshi to resume classes and her clinical rotation today, while appealing her dismissal.

In her suit against the Lewisburg medical school and its Board of Governors, Qureshi contends administrators singled her out and treated her badly from the start.

Qureshi, of Dublin, Ohio, graduated with honors from Ohio State University in 2005. She enrolled at WVSOM the following August.

When she began the program, she requested a female partner for religious reasons during a lab that requires chest and pelvic manipulation.

Administrators denied the request, even though the president of Islamic Medical Association of North America spoke to the osteopathic school's associate dean on her behalf, according to the suit.

The same request was granted to other female students, Qureshi said in her complaint.

James McQueen, Qureshi's lawyer, said the school has been "extremely unyielding" toward his client and she has encountered harassment and discrimination from certain administrators and students.

McQueen of the Charleston law firm Frost Brown & Todd said the harassment began when Qureshi notified faculty that some students had violated rules by obtaining an exam from a previous year.

He said Qureshi's name was leaked as the whistle-blower, which resulted in "bullish and threatening" behavior toward her from her fellow students.

The school also violated student confidentiality laws when it allowed her grades to be posted publicly, he said.

On June 20, Qureshi received a letter from the school's president, Olen Jones Jr., notifying her that she had been dismissed.

 In the letter, Jones said the vice president of academic affairs, the dean, and the student promotions committee recommended her dismissal because she had repeated her first year and had failed two "systems" in her second year.

McQueen said his client had stopped attending classes and would listen to lectures online because the bullying behavior she encountered had "become too painful."

He said Qureshi also had started to take anti-anxiety medication as a result of these encounters.

WVSOM declined to comment.

McQueen said right now the focus of the lawsuit is to get Qureshi reinstated at WVSOM. He said he hopes to meet with the school's president in coming weeks to discuss the suit.

In her lawsuit, Qureshi said the late notification of her dismissal did not give her the time to appeal the decision in time to enroll in the classes that begin today.

McQueen said the school did not follow its own regulations regarding the dismissal of a student, which allows for due process.

"Our purpose is to right what is purely a wrong," he said. "I don't think it reflects badly on the entire school, but the school has to be responsible for people in the administration who may be biased or prejudiced for whatever reason."

U.S. News & World Report ranked WVSOM among the top 50 medical schools in the United States for 2009. The school has made the magazine's list for 10 consecutive years.

According to the state Higher Education Policy Commission, in 2007 WVSOM had an enrollment of 598 students, of which 36 percent were West Virginia residents.

Of its students in 2007, 49 percent were women and 83 percent were white, according to the HEPC.

Reach Veronica Nett at veroni...@wvgazette.com or 348-5113.