Appeal filed in free speech case over anti-gay essay

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A judge dismissed a former University of New Mexico student's lawsuit alleging she was ostracized by professors for anti-gay remarks made in a paper, federal court documents revealed.

Monica Pompeo and her attorney, Bob Gorence, filed an appeal to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver and a hearing on the matter is set for next month, according to court records.

Pompeo claims the university violated her First Amendment right to free speech and kicked her out of a class in 2012 for describing lesbianism as "perverse" in a critique of a lesbian romance film. The Albuquerque Journal (http://bit.ly/1OeT0Jy ) reported that the lawsuit alleges the teacher violated her own syllabus, which called for "open minds" to examine "representations of a plethora of genders and sexualities." Instead, Pompeo says, she was accused of resorting to "hate speech," and the professor refused to grade her paper.

Pompeo alleges the professor also made it clear that it would be in Pompeo's best interests not to return to the class.

FULL story at link.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/94538e27fc434c668445cb1a75d21c66/appeal-filed-free-speech-case-over-anti-gay-essay

[Betty Karlson]

1. Hate speech is not free speech - it is cheap.

If one has a problem with a depiction of lesbian romance, there are other words to describe your feelings: "controversial, confrontative, outspoken" - to name just three. The professor was right to refuse to grade that paper.

[melm00se]

2. Very interesting case

It'll be interesting to see how the court rules here.

there are at least two rights and issues at play here:

- 1st amendment rights of the student (and make no mistake, they are certainly at play here as this is a publicly funded university making the professor a de facto government agent).

- Academic freedom (on both sides of the case)

[NotHardly]

3. Need to see the paper ... need to see sylabus paper expectations

Its nothing in its bits but everything in the whole. Don't jump when you are not given enough information.

[andy.smithy112]

4. Hate speech

I think America needs to take a page out of most European countries' books and stop counting hate speech as freedom of speech.

Second of all, university is a time when people are supposed to be challenged, not just hear ideas they're already comfortable with.

[crim son]

8. I couldn't agree more re: reclassifying hate speech. n/t

[LanternWaste]

5. Seems the paper did not meet academic standards

"...further investigation revealed that Pompeo's professors gave her several opportunities to rewrite her essay to follow academic standards."

"It also stated Hinkley and other professors explained to Pompeo that she hadn't substantiated her opinions with critical analysis. Armijo wrote that professor Hinkley and her boss, Susan Dever, communicated with Pompeo repeatedly about editing her essay."

I imagine that should I have turned in a paper lacking footnotes, sourcing, and citations (i.e., an editorial), I'd resort to stamping my feet too.

[haele]

6. Writing the reasons you personally don't like something is not critical analysis.

I could never, ever, ever get away with my personal opinions of "The Fountainhead" as a critical analysis of that poorly written adolescent soft-porn novel for bankers. Without logical arguments, source material and citations supporting it, my personal opinion on any subject I'm writing about should be graded at the same level as writing "I don't like it when people poop in public". In fact, I had to tutor several classmates when we were providing group analysis for various projects on the difference between what would be a valid analysis and what would be an argument for a personal position.

There's nothing in the 1st Amendment that says a personal opinion must be acceptable for a passing grade, and that hate speech (either "refined" or crude), while it might be considered to have contextual meaning as an artifact or an artistic expression, does not exempt one from taking responsibility when employing it.

Hate Speech indicates a closed mind in which there is a rigid negative categorization of a large group of individuals based on high level or an over-arching traits. It is a lazy habit, evidence of a lazy mind if indulged in regularly.

As for the student, someone who cannot understand the difference between a personal reaction and a critical analysis needs to go back and take some remedial courses. If she was critiquing a lesbian romance as part of a class, she was obviously in the upper 100's/200 level classes, and should know how to properly write her critique for the course by that time, even if she hated the film or thought it disgustingly sinful. I also suspect this was probably the final failure in a string of previous efforts in the class. Why would she take a class that covered "representations of a plethora of genders and sexualities" if gender and sex was something she had limiting views on ("It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve and/or Kathy and Eve"...)? Did the classes examining the critical analysis of race relations or socio-economic-political status seem "too hard"?

Haele

[mwrguy]

7. This will follow her forever

with any luck