|  While the story may seem old based on this April 6 link to an Ann Arbor News story on the recent lawsuit against Eastern Michigan University, it has been reverberating around the state in a number of channels. Kudos to this awesome Ann Arbor News story which provides links to the raw court documents - from which there is enough information for me to easily reach the editorial conclusion that EMU boondoggled this one and violated the First Amendment, probably breaking both halves of it at the same time (remember the religious portion).
It's a story of the First Amendment, public universities gone awry, and personal beliefs about homosexuality. Here's the upshot: It alleges that EMU violated the civil rights of Julea Ward, a graduate student in school counseling, by dismissing her from the program because she would not affirm homosexual behavior in the context of counseling, as specified in university policy. EMU's handbook for students in the counseling program sets out that they adhere to American Counseling Association standards, which require counselors to not engage in discrimination based on, among other things, sexual orientation. When Ward was asked to counsel a client wishing to discuss a homosexual relationship, Ward objected and followed her supervisor's instructions by referring the client to another counselor, said Jeremy Tedesco, an Arizona-based attorney working on the case. Although she had been instructed to refer clients when faced with an ethical dilemma, Ward was still brought up on disciplinary charges, Tedesco said. Dismissal proceedings began in January, and in March she was dismissed from the counseling program. She lost an appeal to the dean of the school of education.
From EMU - no surprise. We hear the usual radio silence appended with the "we're a diverse campus" mantric boilerplate. Pam Young, an EMU spokeswoman, released a statement that said the university doesn't comment about pending litigation, but that EMU is "a diverse campus with a strong commitment not to discriminate on the basis of gender, race, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression."
The devil is in the details of this case, at least for EMU. Why? Since no matter how you parse this case, from the left or the right - even if Ms. Ward is dead wrong in her beliefs about homosexuality EMU's instructors taught her to remove herself from a situation where she had an ethical conflict. She did. She reported the conflict HONESTLY to her instructor, and they recused her from counseling that student. She did what she should have. If you were homosexual, would you want a counselor who didn't believe in the ethics of counseling you or your behavior to counsel you? That is, to be forced, against her will, to counsel you to preserve her ability to stay in the profession. Eastern Michigan University is a public body, subject to the First Amendment. The First Amendment means something and EMU has completely disregarded it here, no matter which direction or slice of facts you take. But not only has it shredded that section of the Constitution, its Fourteenth Amendment view of due process is pretty suspect. You don't punish someone after they follow the rules reasonably, and honestly, and self-report their own ethical conflicts, and after you tell them to do it one way and they do. It's a sad day in Ypsilanti until this case gets resolved. |
