wfn.org | Professor files lawsuit against DePauw University

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

July 15, 2002  News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.   10-71B{301}

GREENCASTLE, Ind. (UMNS) -- Janis Price, a professor at United
Methodist-related DePauw University, has filed a lawsuit against the school,
charging that her salary was cut and her teaching duties were taken away
after she distributed religious materials in her classroom.

Price, an elementary education teacher, put issues of Teachers in Focus on a
table in her classroom. The publication is produced by Focus on the Family,
a Colorado-based Christian organization. 

The magazines included the October 2000 issue, which contained articles on
gay activism in schools. One of the stories, "Love Won Out," was accompanied
with the text "Feeling helpless against the onslaught of gay activists in
your school? Focus on the Family has the answer for you." A student in
Price's class filed a complaint, which led to a reprimand from university
officials.

"She never instructed from the magazines or assigned anything from the
magazines," said John R. Price, an attorney representing the professor but
no relation to her. "One student asked her about her views on homosexual
teachers after looking through one of the magazines and she replied, 'If a
school hires someone to teach English or math, they need to do the best job
they can at teaching English or math.'"

Seven weeks later, the professor was called into the office of Neal Abraham,
vice president of academic affairs at DePauw, and told that her salary was
being reduced 25 percent and her job responsibilities were changing, the
attorney said.

In her lawsuit, Price says Abraham told her that her actions were
"intolerable." 

Price has worked at DePauw University since 1988 as a part-time employee and
since 1992 as a full-time employee. She is still with the university but is
no longer teaching classes. In her lawsuit, she is requesting that her
teaching duties and full salary be restored, and that the disciplinary
action against her be dropped. The case will go to trial this fall.

DePauw University's director of media relations, Ken Owen, said because this
is in an internal personnel matter and is now the subject of a lawsuit, the
school cannot comment on the matter.

"DePauw University was founded by the United Methodist Church and that is a
source of great pride to us," Owen said.  "We believe in the Social
Principles of the United Methodist Church. We value all faiths, and if
someone feels they have been silenced because of their beliefs, then it is
important for us to have a dialogue about it. It is important for a college
to discuss issues like this."

The Social Principles, contained in the denomination's Book of Discipline,
include the church's official position on homosexuality. "Homosexual persons
no less than heterosexual persons are individuals of sacred worth. ...
Although we do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this
practice incompatible with Christian teaching, we affirm that God's grace is
available to all."

DePauw University is one of 124 universities related to the United Methodist
Church. All United Methodist-related schools are approved by the University
Senate under guidelines in the Book of Discipline.

"One of the guidelines for being approved by the University Senate as a
United Methodist school includes the opportunity for the exploration of all
religious beliefs. Each institution sets its own parameters in which that
exploration occurs," said James Noseworthy, an executive with the Division
of Higher Education at the denomination's Board of Higher Education and
Ministry in Nashville, Tenn. He couldn't comment on the lawsuit because the
division had not been informed of it, he said.

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United Methodist News Service
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