By Andrew Hay
Dec 23 (Reuters) – The University of Oklahoma has stripped a graduate student of teaching duties after the teaching assistant gave a zero grade to a student who cited the Bible and her personal religious beliefs in an essay on gender in which she said the idea of more than two genders was “demonic.”
In a statement on Monday, the University of Oklahoma said it determined the graduate teaching assistant was “arbitrary” in grading the essay and would no longer have instructional duties.
Brittany Stewart, a lawyer for the teaching assistant, Mel Curth, said in a statement her client denied the grading decision was arbitrary and was considering appealing the university’s decision. The student, Samantha Fulnecky, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We are committed to teaching students how to think, not what to think,” the university said in its statement.
Fulnecky’s case gained national attention after the university’s chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative student group, published her essay and Curth’s comments online, and Fulnecky complained of religious persecution to Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt.
It is similar to conflicts at other U.S. universities over how lecturers talk about gender and religion, with both sides saying they are trying to protect free speech and academic freedom.
Fulnecky was enrolled in a psychology course in November when she submitted the essay on an article about gender stereotypes and peer relations among middle-school students.
Fulnecky wrote that students teasing one another as a way to enforce gender norms was not necessarily a problem, as God made males and females differently for a purpose. Curth gave the essay a score of zero out of 25, saying it failed to meet assignment criteria and relied heavily on personal and religious ideology rather than empirical material. Curth, who identifies as transgender, said parts of the essay were “offensive.”
Fulnecky submitted a grade appeal to the university and a complaint alleging religious discrimination. The university removed the zero on the essay from Fulnecky’s final grade in the course.
(Reporting by Andrew Hay in New Mexico; editing by Donna Bryson and Rod Nickel)
