The College of Oklahoma has fired an teacher who was accused by a scholar of non secular discrimination over a failing grade on a psychology paper by which she cited the Bible and argued that selling a “belief in multiple genders” was “demonic.”
The college stated in a press release posted Monday on X that its investigation discovered the graduate instructing assistant had been “arbitrary” in giving 20-year-old junior Samantha Fulnecky zero factors on the task. The college declined to remark past its assertion, which stated the trainer had been faraway from instructing.
Conservative teams, commentators and others rapidly made Fulnecky’s failing grade an internet trigger, highlighting her argument that she’d been punished for expressing conservative Christian views. Her case turned a flashpoint within the ongoing debate over educational freedom on school campuses as President Donald Trump pushes to finish variety, fairness and inclusion initiatives, and prohibit how campuses talk about race, gender and sexuality.
Fulnecky appealed her grade on the task, which was price 3% of the ultimate grade within the class, and the college stated the task wouldn’t rely. It additionally positioned Curth on depart, and Oklahoma’s conservative Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, declared the scenario “deeply concerning.”
“The University of Oklahoma believes strongly in both its faculty’s rights to teach with academic freedom and integrity and its students’ right to receive an education that is free from a lecturer’s impermissible evaluative standards,” the college’s assertion stated. “We are committed to teaching students how to think, not what to think.”
Universities below hearth
A regulation accepted this yr by Oklahoma’s Republican-dominated Legislature and signed by Stitt prohibits state universities from utilizing public funds to finance DEI packages or positions or mandating DEI coaching. Nevertheless, the regulation says it doesn’t apply to scholarly analysis or “the academic freedom of any individual faculty member.”
Dwelling phone listings for Fulnecky within the Springfield, Missouri, space had been disconnected, and her mom — an legal professional, podcaster and radio host — didn’t instantly reply Tuesday to a Fb message in search of remark concerning the college’s motion.
Fulnecky’s failing grade got here in an task for a psychology class on lifespan growth. Curth directed college students to jot down a 650-word response to an instructional research that examined whether or not conformity with gender norms was related to reputation or bullying amongst center college college students.
Fulnecky wrote that she was pissed off by the premise of the task as a result of she doesn’t imagine that there are greater than two genders based mostly on her understanding of the Bible, in line with a duplicate of her essay supplied to The Oklahoman.
“Society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic and severely harms American youth,” she wrote, including that it might lead society “farther from God’s original plan for humans.”
“Please note that I am not deducting points because you have certain beliefs,” Curth wrote.
