School Expulsion May Have Been Faith-Based

[The Straight Story]

School Expulsion May Have Been Faith-Based

(CN) - The 6th Circuit revived claims that Eastern Michigan University professors violated free speech by expelling a Christian graduate student who did not want to work with a gay client.

Julea Ward was 13 credits hours away from completing her master's degree in counseling in 2009 when she enrolled in a practicum that required students to provide one-on-one counseling with real clients.

Upon receiving the profile of her third client, a man who sought counseling about a same-sex relationship, Ward, a devout Christian, requested that the client be referred to someone else because "her faith prevented her from affirming a client's same-sex relationships."

Eastern Michigan University teaches students to "affirm" their clients' values during counseling sessions, but Ward often told professors during her three years in the program that her faith prevented her from affirming conduct such as homosexuality or extramarital relationships.

...

The code in question states that "counselors [1] are aware of their own values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors and [2] avoid imposing values that are inconsistent with counseling goals. [3] Counselors respect the diversity of clients, trainees and research participants."

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/02/01/43551.htm

[CurtEastPoint]

2. Been there and done that in GA and that student lost. TFB.

Anti-Gay Georgia Counseling Student’s Expulsion Upheld On Appeal
Posted December 19th, 2011 by Evan Hurst

If you’ve been following The Gay News for a while, you probably remember the story of Jennifer Keeton. She was a counseling student at Augusta State University who wanted special treatment from the school based on her fundamentalist beliefs. Specifically, she wanted to be able to go against accepted mental health guidelines when it comes to treating gays and lesbians. When the school politely explained to her that if she was to graduate, she would have to make sure that her beliefs did not interfere with the accepted standards of that profession, she cried “victim!” and sued. That has not been going well for her:

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a lower court’s ruling against a graduate student who had sought a court order preventing Augusta State University from expelling her from its school-counseling program.

The student, Jennifer Keeton, sued the Georgia university in July 2010, saying that it had violated her rights to free speech and the free exercise of her Christian faith when it told her that, in order to stay in the program, she would have to change her beliefs about homosexuality—that it is immoral, unnatural, and a “lifestyle choice” that can be reversed through “conversion therapy.”

[...]

The court noted that the requirements of the counseling program—needed for its continued accreditation and compliance with the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics—are similar to the rules for judges, who must apply laws even if they consider them erroneous.

“In seeking to evade the curricular requirement that she not impose her moral values on clients,” the court said, “Keeton is looking for preferential, not equal, treatment.”

Oh, ouch, that must have burned when she read it.

[xchrom]

3. +1