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The school announced Mel Curth’s suspension before communicating with her just weeks after the UO Psychology Department had awarded her its Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award, according to news reports.
A full-time professor is now teaching the class.
UO raced to launch an investigation and Oklahoma state Sen. Lisa Standridge called for the instructor to be fired, which reveals that she apparently doesn’t know the definition of empirical, either.
Standridge is a member of the Oklahoma Freedom Caucus, a right-wing coalition within the state legislature.
Fulnecky is likely being used by her mother and UO’s student Turning Point USA chapter. Turning Point, a national organization, encourages people to report teachers with “radical left” positions.
Turning Point doesn’t support reporting teachers with radical right positions. Just noting.
The radical right leapt on the opportunity to turn the UO administration’s misadministration into a hullabaloo over freedom of religion and speech rights, which places religious dogma above empirical (scientific) knowledge, even in a science class.
Fulnecky also filed a religious discrimination claim against Curth. That is newsworthy, but news media misreporting has turned an obscure fuss into an international, political pandemonium.
Turning Point UO accused UO of “letting mentally ill professors around students” and said, “Clearly this professor lacks the intellectual maturity to set her own bias aside and take grading seriously.”
International Business Times/UK reported that the case “has spiraled into a targeted political attack, particularly given the student’s family background and the broader tensions surrounding trans educators in Oklahoma.”
Samantha’s mother, Kristi Fulnecky, supports her. Naturally. Kirsty says all trans people should be barred from teaching altogether. It’s little wonder that she has the reputation of being a rabble-rouser.
The UO Graduate Student Senate passed a resolution condemning the university’s actions and calling for Curth’s reinstatement.
Day and wife, Ruth, have lived in Pullman since 1972. In 2004, he retired after 32 years as a science communicator on the Washington State University faculty. His interests and reading are catholic (small c) and peripatetic. He welcomes emails to [email protected]. Give him a piece of your mind.
