University of Oklahoma students gathered to protest a teaching assistant’s suspension on Friday afternoon in Norman.
The instructor, Mel Curth, was placed on leave by the university in November. She had given a failing grade to an OU student in an incident that’s sparking debate in Oklahoma and beyond about free speech and the place of religion in the classroom.
Samantha Fulnecky, a junior at OU, says she's a victim of religious persecution because she was given a zero for an essay that cited the Bible, which was later published by The Oklahoman. Fulnecky reached out to the governor and leaders of conservative groups, making her case for discrimination.
The incident is sparking debate online, and Fulnecky has been invited to speak at multiple conservative events. But her claims of discrimination have also sparked opposition from some – especially on OU’s campus – who feel her instructor was unfairly punished.
Hundreds attended the student-organized protest, but some faculty members joined in. Hunter Heyck, a history professor, said he’s disappointed with how university leaders are handling pressure from outside forces.
“We have policies in place for handling legitimate complaints,” Heyck said. “We have policies in place for assessing whether or not a complaint is legitimate, but there's enormous pressure from the outside to not follow those policies. We should be defending our academic integrity.”
Heyck said he doesn’t plan to change the way he grades students, but acknowledged not all instructors have the same liberty. He has been teaching at OU for more than two decades.
“If I was in a more vulnerable position I would have to be careful,” he said. “In our department, we have thought carefully about who would teach certain classes that are likely to raise hot button issues so that they would be people who are less vulnerable.”
The failing grade at the center of the case
Fulnecky was asked to write a reactionary essay to a study exploring whether a child’s popularity is associated with their conformity to prescribed social gender norms.
She responded to the prompt by writing about her belief that there are only two genders, and that men and women were created with tendencies to fill certain gender roles. She wrote her beliefs are informed by her Christian faith and reading the Bible.
“I strongly disagree with the idea from the article that encouraging acceptance of diverse gender expressions could improve students’ confidence,” she wrote. “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.”
Curth, gave Fulnecky zero points, writing, “I am not deducting points because you have certain beliefs, but I am instead deducting point [sic] for you posting a reaction paper that does not answer the questions for the assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a science class, and is at times offensive.”
Fulnecky’s only source in the essay was the Bible. There is no explicit mention of “empirical evidence” in the assignment rubric, beyond the need to support claims made with the assigned reading or “further studies.”
Why were people marching?
Despite chilly weather, graduate student Brianna Donald joined the march in support of Curth. She said she’s worried about the chilling effect Fulnecky’s reaction could have among her peers.
“I’m worried that graduate students who are grading these papers are going to be afraid to give an accurate grade because of this display here,” she said.
Protestors held up signs calling out the university directly, asking leaders to apologize to Curth. “That’s not discipline,” one sign read, “that’s authoritarian.”
Andrew Weiss, an OU student, spoke at the rally. He described himself as a former “Turning Point guy.” Although he was never formally affiliated with the conservative organization, he agreed with much of its ideology. But he said that those opinions weren’t based on logic.
“It let me feel both like it let me feel like both oppressor and victim. You know the best parts of both,” Weiss said.
He changed his viewpoint after his best friend came out to him as transgender, which spurred him to explore viewpoints different from the right-leaning ones he had been seeking.
Weiss said he thinks students will rally together to support Curth as the situation continues to unfold, just as they did at the rally.
“I'm hoping that this intimidates you into retaining that instructor. If not, we will be right there for her as a community, raising money to facilitate her transition to another community,” Weiss said. “Even if she doesn't have a home here on OU payroll. She has a home here amongst the OU community.”
Fulnecky wants grad student held accountable
At a recent event hosted by Original Constitutional Principles Affecting Culture, a local conservative group, Fulnecky said she has gotten full credit on previous writing assignments for the course.
“I was asked to give my opinion and I gave my opinion. I've gotten 100% on every essay I've written in that class,” she said.
The event drew support from conservative leaders like Ryan Walters, the state’s former superintendent, who wanted a Bible in every classroom. He said Fulnecky's experience should make the state reconsider the financial support it provides the university.
“We absolutely have to hold people accountable,” Walters said. “So they should all be fired and we should be looking into their tax status there, we should be looking into taxpayer dollars at OU because again, these are your dollars that are being used to warp the minds of the next generation.”
Some have suggested that Fulnecky orchestrated the incident to outrage her TA, Curth, who is transgender. However, Fulnecky said at the OCPAC event that she was unaware of the instructor’s identity when writing her paper.
“I mean, I don't agree with any of the online hate towards the TA. I don't think that's a loving or helpful way to handle a situation like this,” Fulnecky said. “I don't agree with any of the hateful things that people are saying towards that person individually. But if you can't do your job correctly, then in any field, then you get fired. And so I think they're doing the right thing.”
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