Oklahoma University student Samantha Fulnecky filed a discrimination complaint to the university when she received a failing grade on a Bible based essay about gender. The essay was graded by transgender psychology professor Mel Curth. Fulnecky claimed that her grade was based on religious discrimination. Curth was placed on administrative leave after the complaint.

The assignment was for students to write a 650-word essay in response to an academic study about whether conforming to gender norms was related to middle school students’ popularity status. Fulnecky wrote that “Society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic and severely harms American youth.” The professor responded by saying that the essay is contradictory and offensive. Curth said that “using your own personal beliefs to argue against the findings of not only this article, but the findings of countless articles across psychology, biology, sociology, etc. is not best practice.”

Fulnecky claims that she followed the prompt guidelines, and that the grade she was given was based on religious discrimination. The University of Oklahoma statement said they take the First Amendment concerns seriously and they have conducted a formal grade appeal. In their statement they have said “OU remains firmly committed to fairness, respect and protecting every student’s right to express sincerely held religious beliefs.”

        After an investigation, professor Mel Curth is no longer allowed to teach at Oklahoma University and Samantha’s grade, which was worth 3% of her final grade, was put in as a no-count. This controversy has sparked a lot of national debate and even protests at OU, it has also received coverage by TPUSA, Fox News and many well as many online content creators posting their opinions on the situation.