Polk State College in Lakeland, Florida has gone an extra mile to show support for an atheist professor, who was accused of discriminating against and failing his 16-year-old Christian student in a Humanities course, after she refused to uphold his anti-Christian worldview in her assignments.

Rachel Pleasant, director of communications at Polk State College, shared with the media a copy of the response by attorneys W. A. Drew Crawford and Donald H. Wilson, associates of Boswell & Dunlap, who have decided to represent the academic institute in the case. In a letter addressed to attorneys Richard L. Mast and Roger K. Gannam, associates of nonprofit law firm Liberty Counsel, who are representing complainant Grace Lewis and her parents, they were told how their allegation pertaining to discrimination is absolutely baseless and without any merit.

“[T]he College affirmatively asserts that your allegation of discrimination is baseless, without merit, and absolutely lacking any factual support. … Your entire letter, which is based upon this hollow and indefensible allegation, fails to acknowledge long-standing academic practice, and legally fails to establish any claim against either the College or its employee,” read the letter.

On May 6, Lewis, a student with a 3.9 grade point average, attended a class by her professor Lance L. J. Russum, who allegedly gave her a zero in four consecutive assignments, simply because she refused to condone his anti-Christian worldviews in the essays.

According to media reports, Russum’s Facebook page, which has now been deleted, since Liberty Counsel intervened on Lewis’ behalf, carried a photograph of Christ holding up his middle finger in an obscene manner alongside an offensive caption.

Additionally, Russum explained his definition of anti-theism on his recently deleted Facebook page, where he wrote, “Anti-theists are not going to argue with a theist about creation of the earth or where humans come from, an anti-theist will ask a theist what happened to you that makes you so dependent on mythology that you use it to escape reality.”

While defending Russum and Polk State College, Crawford and Wilson argued that most of the issues raised by Liberty Counsel seem to be inflammatory but none of them could be considered as religious discrimination. They said Lewis had suffered no discrimination, since she was eventually awarded a grade A for the class.

“The four assignments for which she received zeroes were part of fifteen essays required for the class, and those fifteen essays represented forty percent of the total grade for the class,” they wrote. “Your client received excellent marks on the other work and exams that were part of the class, and the total of those grades entitled her to an overall “A” for the class… Clearly, this student has not been in any way damaged or disadvantaged by the professor’s actions.”

In response to Crawford and Wilson’s claims, Lewis’ mother, Kristin said while she was thankful for her daughter’s final grade, considering it truly reflected what she deserved, she was awarded the A only after the parents spoke to the dean of the college and sought help from Liberty Counsel.

“In order for her to get a 90, we have observed that Mr. Russum gave her an 80 (with no explanation) after four zeros, gave her a 100 on the final, and then dropped one of her zero papers,” she added. “Her final paper was excellent; but so were the four essays that received zeros. Why the turn around? Working behind the scenes to give Grace an ‘A’ to make us go away is not bringing resolution to our concerns and it does not insure that this same thing will not happen to other Polk State students in the future.”

Crawford and Wilson have said that different college officials should review the four assignments in which Lewis was given a zero to see if Russum assessed her fairly.

“These experienced educators have agreed unanimously that in each instance the student chose to reject the specific assignment that was given, stating that she disagreed with the nature or premise of the question and then launching into an apparent effort to defend her Christian beliefs,” they claimed. “The overall fallacy of your position rests singly on the premise that an instructor should not require a student to consider, discuss or present arguments that are contrary to his/her personal beliefs. Such a position shows apparent ignorance of long-standing academic practice. … An instructor could properly require a class to write papers explaining Adolf Hitler’s views on the actions of Germany’s Jewish population. … Such an assignment would not be discriminatory against Jewish students or an effort to promote anti-Semitism. Should a student choose to write a condemnation of National Socialism and a defense of the Jewish people, the work would not be responsive to the instructor’s assignment.”

Reportedly, Russum had in the past, asked his students to respond to a question related to an article titled Religious Nuns in Medieval Europe.

“Why did Christianity, and its male gods, want to silence these women?” was his question.

Grace’s answer, which according to Crawford and Wilson, was deservingly given a zero, read as follows:

“Based upon the resources that I have studied, I must confirm that I cannot arrive at the answer to this question. This is because no information provided by the textbook or the articles gives any objectively presented information that can help one find an answer or an informed opinion.

“Specifically, there is no fact based solution to this question. The question is trying to cause the student to take a Marxist, secular humanist, feminist opinion that Christianity is a myth and that it is oppressive of women.

“However, if the question is trying to make the case that some historic cultures were oppressive then that is fine, but one cannot blame all the failures of the Middle Ages on Christianity. Furthermore, the question does not even correctly address the godhead of

Christianity; instead it offensively criticizes and falsely labels the Doctrine of the Trinity as “male gods”. In true Christianity, there is one God, not several as stated. It is true, God is of three forms (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), but He is one God.

“The question wants the student to conclude that God wanted to “silence women” because the Judeo-Christian God is a corrupt god created by mankind or mainly “men” to exert control over civilizations and even more so women (which just happens to match the ideology being promoted in this particular course). This opinion is not an objective opinion. There is no information or logic to support that end. Therefore, if I were to answer the question in the way it was intended it would not be supported by anything except uninformed opinion. Overall, this question should be rephrased in order to encourage good scholarship.”

In other assignments, Lewis and her fellow classmates were apparently expected to admit that Christianity is a myth that has an oppressive and violent stance towards women, Martin Luther’s intentions for the Reformation Movement were completely secular and the aim of Michelangelo’s paintings and sculptures was to show that same-sex relationships are not sinful.

Mat Staver, founder and chairperson of Liberty Counsel, told the media that the letter from the attorneys representing the college reveal a graver problem at the academic institution.

“Russum is a militant atheist who is proselytizing atheism at this school,” he said, adding that, in another example of Russum’s behavior, the professor reportedly required students in one of his classes to keep journals that he would be reading. To one student who wrote, “I believe in God,” in the journal, Russum responded, “You need to drop my class.”

Staver also said that it would not be very difficult to see who Russum really is and learn everything he is about, since he has put out a lot of information about himself on the internet.

“A professor should not be proselytizing his personal worldview in his classroom,” Staver said. “It would be just as inappropriate to have an evangelical proselytizing professor. The school needs to respond appropriately to this discrimination against Grace…

What the professor is doing is unconstitutional. He is advocating for hostility toward religion in his class, forcing his students to adopt his militant atheism and failing them if they don’t. We will be responding to the College and holding them accountable for this blatant discrimination.”

Lewis’ mother said that the family is doing its part to make sure students have their right to religious freedom respected by authorities at Polk State College.

Photo Credits: Black Christian News