Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) intervened after a professor at Southern Illinois University refused to grade the paper of a Christian student.
Christine Mize, a social work graduate student, had to create an eight-week therapy program based on a topic of her choice.
She chose to create a therapy model for women who suffer from post-abortion syndrome and told her professor, Laura Drueth Zeman, that the recovery portion would be faith-based. Drueth Zeman told Mize that she would downgrade the paper if it included a faith-based element.
Mize handed in her paper without the contested section, but also provided the professor with legal information to avoid any such misunderstandings in the future.
Amy Smith, litigation counsel for ADF, said Drueth Zeman has had the paper since December and has refused to issue a grade -- leaving Mize, a 4.0 student, with an incomplete in a class required for graduation.
"The professor's actions are neither constitutional nor fitting for a venue universally known as the marketplace of ideas," Smith said. "Christian students do not forsake their constitutional rights to express their faith-based views the minute they step on a university campus."
FOR MORE INFORMATION
You can read ADF's letter to Southern Illinois University online.
