Students' Free-Speech Rights at Issue in Two Penn. Lawsuits
by Jim Brown
March 3, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Two public universities in Pennsylvania -- Temple University and Penn State -- are simultaneously facing federal civil rights lawsuits filed by a Christian group.The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) is suing Temple over its alleged "campaign of retaliation and retribution" against a Pennsylvania National Guard sergeant who served overseas. David French, who heads ADF's Center for Academic Freedom, says while serving in Bosnia, graduate student Christian DeJohn clashed politically with Temple professors who sent anti-war e-mails to him. According to the attorney, there was some fallout from that interaction.
"He came back to find that he'd been expelled from Temple," says French. But things did not stop when that wrong was righted. "When he got readmitted to Temple, his master's thesis was flunked," the attorney continues. "And then the university falsely reported him as being delinquent on student loans."
Prior to going overseas, DeJohn had an exemplary record, says French. "This is a person who, before he had the political clashes with his professors, had received nothing but the best treatment."
Concurrent with DeJohn's case, ADF is challenging a speech code at Penn State University that bars students from using words deemed to be "intolerant." But a spokesman for the school claims Penn State has no policy that conflicts with students' free-speech rights. Not so, says French.
"What we're trying to do is restore the marketplace of ideas [on college campuses] and make sure that everyone enjoys the equal rights to speak," the ADF lawyer says. "For too long in this country at Temple, at Penn State, and many other universities, Christian and conservative students have not had those equal rights."
According to French, courts have struck down similar language in speech codes that have been turned against conservative and Christian students at other schools. "[T]hese lawsuits are directly designed to restore equality," he explains.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
