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College student gets F grade for mentioning God


TaintedDoughnuts

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I wasn't sure where to put this, so I figure this is better than any other forums^_^

BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS

Student gets F grade

for mentioning God

'He told me you might as well

write about the Easter Bunny'

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Posted: June 30, 2005

1:00 a.m. Eastern

A college in southern California is now investigating the case of a student who says she was given an F for mentioning "God" against the expressed wishes of her atheist instructor.

Bethany Hauf, a freshman at Victor Valley Community College near San Bernadino, wrote the G-word 41 times in a paper titled "In God We Trust," examining the role of religion in government.

She included "God" despite being told not to by adjunct English instructor Michael Shefchik.

"He said it would offend others in class," Hauf, 34, told the Daily Press. "I didn't realize God was taboo."

The mother of four from Apple Valley, Calif., is now demanding an apology from the school, as well as a regrading of her 10-page report.

"I don't lose my First Amendment rights when I walk into that college," she said.

"We are very serious about this situation," VVC spokesman Bill Greulich told WorldNetDaily. "You have two rights in conflict – the right to believe in what you believe in, and academic freedom. We're going to take steps that are appropriate. We don't have all the facts yet."

Greulich says Hauf began the process to challenge her grade by meeting with the department chair, but did not continue up the chain of command in her recourse. He says she could still do that, appealing to the vice president, superintendent and president of the school.

Meanwhile, Hauf has contacted the American Center for Law & Justice, which sent a letter to Patricia Spencer, president of VVC.

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the ACLJ recounted in the letter what Shefchik wrote to Bethany when she was getting approval for her subject matter:

"I have one limiting factor – no mention of big 'G' gods, i.e., one, true god argumentation," Shefchik stated.

"He told me you might as well write about the Easter Bunny," Hauf told the Daily Press. "He wanted to censor the word God."

Shefchik has not been reached for comment, but Judy Solis, chair of the English department, says Hauf was given three options: submit the report with God included, make revisions and edit out the G-word, or rewrite the entire report.

"She continued to write her paper," Solis told the Press. "She knew what the consequences were."

Sekulow says Hauf should have had no ban on her freedom of speech or religious views in the assignment.

"Bethany's paper discusses some of the evidences supporting a hypothesis that, while the Constitution prohibits an established church, religion was essential to the founding of the Nation and to its governance thereafter," he writes.

"Her paper was not one written 'about God' per se. Nor was her paper inherently and necessarily religious. And, in keeping with the requirements of the assignment, it was assiduously supported with citations to authority and written objectively. Consequently, even if, in a country in which academic and constitutional freedoms are so highly prized, it could be constitutional to impose a topical ban on papers about big 'G' gods, it was sophomoric error to read Mrs. Hauf's research paper as falling within the prohibited zone."

Despite the failing mark on the paper, Hauf passed the spring-semester course with a final grade of C.

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I have mixed feelings about this story. Although she does have her rights, and she followed the rest of the guidelines, what the teachers says, goes. But the teacher shouldn't have been so strict about nobody using the word God in a paper, after all, I don't believe many people get offended by the word.

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and yet.. if he had given someone an F for a student using the Goddess word...

meh *shrugs* need I remind you that a christian student can sue an athiest teacher if they teach something that conflicts with said christain student's dogma...

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This is beginning to get really rediculous. You can't censor a person's beliefs and the teacher is breaking the law by taking away a 5th Ammendent right. It really doesn't matter what religion is being targeted, it's still wrong.

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while the Constitution prohibits an established church, religion was essential to the founding of the Nation and to its governance thereafter

Quite frankly, it sounds like her paper was a load of garbage anyway huh.gif

Quite frankly, I'm afraid that anyone who's been to university should have realised by now that a lecturer can often be very picky about what they mark. If your lecturer is a Fruedian, and spends the entire semester teaching you Fruedian veiws, and your final paper contains a lot of dribble that he considers to be incorrect, then your grade might well suffer for it.

Let's be honest here...religion isn't essential for the running of a nation. Unless of course you're the Romans, who realised that Christianity was a great slave religion, and adopted it (with a few minor tweaks) in order to pacify their population. In order to draw any such conclusion, this girl's paper must have had a great deal more wrong with it than just mentioning god.

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It really doesn't matter what religion is being targeted, it's still wrong.

708839[/snapback]

Exactly.

The same thing goes for a teacher who is biased by being a christian grading a student who writes a paper on how there is no god.

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SC - I think you have a persecution complex. This is applying to any religious views, not just Christianity. The outrage would be the same if it involved the word Goddess.

meh *shrugs* need I remind you that a christian student can sue an athiest teacher if they teach something that conflicts with said christain student's dogma...

Has this happened? Need I remind you that a Christian teacher can get fired for giving their own opinions in religious matters. My year 11 history teacher was talking about evolution and the different theories regarding it. When asked of her own opinion, she said she was not allowed to give it for fear of rretribution in the education heirarchy (I suspect her to be Catholic, though I cannot know for certain - I didn't really care much about religion or God when i was 17).

Sera - I understand what you are trying to say, but isn't the idea of university to think for yourself? I often have submitted reports which contradict the lecturer's own views and opinions. As long as I build my case with supporting arguments and citations (which from reading this article seems to be the case), then the lecturer should accept it as a valid argument whatever his personal opinions.

All the best,

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Why in the world did she intentionally go against her professors specified request? If the prof had told her not to write about Emperor penguins and she wrote about Emperor penguins, she probably would have failed, too.

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Why in the world did she intentionally go against her professors specified request?  If the prof had told her not to write about Emperor penguins and she wrote about Emperor penguins, she probably would have failed, too.

708985[/snapback]

I think there was a little more to it than that. I think it was more of a "I (the professor) am right for being atheist and you are wrong for believing in God". Did you not see what he said?

I dont care if a professor doesnt like whatever I believe in but that doesnt mean he has the right to give me an F for my views.

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Quite frankly, it sounds like her paper was a load of garbage anyway huh.gif

708843[/snapback]

How can you say this while in turn not having read one word of her paper? All you know is that it mentioned "God". Does this make it a load of garbage?

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I would have given the teacher the "F" finger. thumbsup.gif

708760[/snapback]

You got that right Amalgamut, some people, if that was my child there would be war at that school, this teacher needs to be removed! yes.gif

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I agree, that teacher has no write to do that. Further more, if you are going to disagree with someones views you do it in a civilized manor. You don't insult the person by comparing what they believe in to the easter bunny,, especially if your a college professor.....you should be more mature than that.

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Let's be honest here...religion isn't essential for the running of a nation.

708843[/snapback]

Actually there was several laws that are base of religion in many nation. Also i think religion is a major part of a nation, if it is not then we wouldn't have iraqi raging holy wars and Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

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the teacher was right

for me there's no god and if you write 41 times the word "god" so you have 41 mistakes tongue.gif

look, the whole thing starts with "In God We Trust" that's utterly wrong original.gif how can we trust in something that doesn't exist yes.gif the teacher was right thumbsup.gif

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How can you say this while in turn not having read one word of her paper? All you know is that it mentioned "God". Does this make it a load of garbage?

I believe the paper was a load of garbage based on it's premise...the belief that religion is vital in running a nation. Religion, in the past and the present, has actually been the greatest source of division among mankind ever divised...any paper based upon this premise is, quite frankly, going to be full of tripe.

Actually there was several laws that are base of religion in many nation.

Actually, you'll probably find that the laws which you believe are based on religion, are actually simply based on the social norms for any given social mammal...they're not in our code of laws because of religion, but rather our code of laws and religion share them based entirerly on the same source.

Every single society, including those who predate christianity and the ten commandments, have had laws against the like of murder and theft. Religion has nothing to do with it...it simply happens that a working code is in place to allow large groups of any given animal to function. By and large, this code is actually hard coded into our behaviour, which is why the vast majority of people are repulsed by such crimes.

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Like your way of thinking Seraphina.

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Thank you I...

*looks at Funi's avatar*

.....

.........

.............

.................Thank you, I aim to please.

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stop looking at it

someone already stole it mad.gif

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The teacher was dumb. Although I don't think we should involve religion in our schools. I mean if one believes different that is ok. I mean what if he preached about "no God exists" this is wrong also. I mean we don't discuss things that offend others. Church and the home is the prper place. I mean the child was clearly trying to p*** the teacher off., Well it worked and she got an F.

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1) Church and public schools should be kept seperated.

2) She was correct in saying religion held an imortant role in the founding of our nation.

3) You have no right to take away someone's freedom given to them in the constitution just because you are a teacher.

The teacher told her not to mention her beliefs, but she did anyway. *applause*

Some of you people need to learn some things are more important than others. Example: standing up for what you believe in versus a stupid college paper.

She has the right idea. thumbsup.gif

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Yeah but what if she fails the whole class because she wants to be a rebel. I am sure she could have chosen a different route. even though the history of our country is based on God.

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I don't know how the teacher got to be a teacher. It sounds like he/she has the mentality of a 12 year old.

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So, if a teacher/professor gives an assignment, with guidelines and parameters, the student should be free to disregard those guidelines and parameters because they disagree?

An example would be, say a discussion on the effects of de-criminalizing marijuana from a medical and legal standpoint, and refraining from personal and or religious opinions. Would a student whose paper basically read "I think that legalizing pot is wrong because my religious leader tells me so", meet those criteria?

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Also i think religion is a major part of a nation, if it is not then we wouldn't have iraqi raging holy wars and Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Just shows that religions are only good for creating strife, no matter what they pretend to teach. yes.gif

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