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By Keith Gushard

Meadville Tribune

Lorrayne Bickel of Guys Mills doesn’t mind studying for business degrees at Laurel Technical Institute of Meadville — she just doesn’t want to have to do it inside her van.

Bickel, 50, says she was asked to leave classrooms this week over concerns of lymphedema in her legs; the condition causes fluid to build up, and on occasion drain out of her legs.

Bickel said her legs have drained fluid at the business school since she started there last September, but she was asked to leave following a drainage incident in a classroom this week.

“They knew about it before I started (classes) last fall,” Bickel said of her medical condition. “(If it was problem) they should have said something long before now. It’s seven and a half months before they said a word about my legs.”

Nancy Decker, Laurel’s president, said the school is working with Bickel to try to resolve the issue.

Bickel, who is paying $2,500 a semester, said she’s now forced to do her studies for degrees in business administration and office administration inside her van in the parking lot outside Laurel’s classrooms at the Meadville Industrial Condominium on Pine Street.

Bickel said her doctors have told her she’s not infectious, but she said the school wants a doctor’s clearance in writing before allowing her back in the classroom.

Her physician, Dr. Curt Halgert, is out of town until May 19, Bickel said, and she couldn’t get an appointment with him until May 29.

Bickel said she was asked to leave the school around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday via a telephone call from Decker after an incident earlier in the week when fluid had drained onto the floor of a classroom.