A Connecticut college student is suing her former public school district, accusing them of letting her graduate with honors despite the fact that she never learned how to read or write.

The student, nineteen-year-old Aleysha Ortiz, was an English language learner while she attended Hartford Public Schools. During her time there, she says that despite speaking up on numerous occasions to advocate for herself academically, she was never provided with the adequate resources or skills needed to help her succeed. Instead, she had to rely on speech-to-text programs, apps, personal recordings she made, and other online resources to help her understand her class material.

In an interview with CNN, Ortiz shares that she would often spend countless hours at home replaying recordings and teaching herself class material that she regularly was not supported in while she was in school.

Ortiz explains that when she was in school, teachers, support staff, and others failed to support her in the way she needed. "They would just either tell me to stay in a corner and sleep or just draw pictures, flowers for them," she shared with the national news outlet.

Ortiz’s mother, who does not speak English, tried to seek out help for her daughter, but she often faced obstacles due to her limited language abilities. Ortiz explains of her mom, "She advocated so much. She went to the school. The principal promised her that it would be better. Sometimes it would be people from the district or the directors promising her they would do better."

Ortiz was recognized as possibly having dyslexia, a neurological learning disability that largely impacts a person's ability to read, spell, and decode. Despite the suspicions of her teachers and other educators, she had to regularly initiate requests to her special education case managers to have testing done to determine if she was dyslexic. However, she was never successful in her attempts to get help.

Rather, three months before her graduation, Ortiz was discharged from receiving special education services instead of receiving the testing and additional support she advocated for.

Fast forward to the last day of her high school career, and Ortiz would eventually undergo a reading evaluation which determined that she had failed to gain mastery of foundational reading skills. "She required explicitly taught phonics, fluency and reading comprehension – none of which she ever received during her time as a student in the Hartford Public School system," the lawsuit details.

The lawsuit argues that the Hartford Board of Education and the school district acknowledged and documented Ortiz’s learning challenges through multiple grades, yet those challenges were not adequately addressed. "She continued to struggle academically and began exhibiting maladaptive behaviors in the classroom," the lawsuit reads.

The allegations call out Ortiz’s special education case manager, Tilda Santiago, for failing to support Ortiz. Santiago is accused of exhibiting "controlling and possessive behaviors" when other teachers would try to step in and speak with Ortiz.

The teacher is also accused of being verbally abusive and intimidating to the student. Santiago allegedly "would yell at, belittle, ridicule, and humiliate" Ortiz in front of other students and teachers, the lawsuit explains. When other teachers would mark Ortiz present in class, Santiago would change the records to mark the student as absent.

As a result of these allegations, Ortiz says that she suffered emotional and physiological injuries, some of which were permanent in nature. Ortiz shared that she struggled emotionally during her time at school and that she battled feelings that left her unable to fully enjoy her childhood.

The counts of negligence extend to the Hartford School Board of Education and the City of Hartford. Ortiz is seeking compensatory damages and other relief as deemed appropriate by the court.

Currently, Ortiz is a student at the University of Hartford on a scholarship. She says she plans to study public policy to help students like her in the future.

The school district has shared a statement in light of the lawsuit. In the statement, they explain, "While Hartford Public Schools cannot comment on pending litigation, we remain deeply committed to meeting the full range of needs our students bring with them when they enter our schools — and helping them reach their full potential."