By Susan Duclos
Columbia State Community College professor Linda Brunton ordered her students to wear “Rainbow Coalition” ribbons for an entire day and express their support for the gay community. Brunton also informed them that those who believe in the traditional definition of marriage were "uneducated bigots," who "attack homosexuals with hate, according to Travis Barham, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, who is representing a number of the students.
Via
Todd Starnes:
“Dr. Brunton essentially turned her General Psychology class into a
semester-long clinic on the demands of the homosexual movement,” Barham
said.
A Columbia State spokesperson told Fox News she was not aware of the
concerns but vowed to look into the matter. Brunton did not return a
telephone call seeking comment.
According to her faculty page,
Brunton is a member of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Educators
Network and lists diversity issues among her professional interests.
Alliance Defending Freedom said the professor told students to write a
paper about how they were allegedly “discriminated against” because of
their support for homosexual conduct.
Several students objected to the assignment because their religious
convictions prohibit them from supporting conduct their faith teaches
them is immoral and unnatural.
Barham said the professor made it clear they had to follow the rules
of the assignment to receive credit and allegedly told the students
their own beliefs and viewpoints were irrelevant – even when they wrote
their papers.
The students were also barred from defending or explaining any other
views regarding homosexual conduct, dismissing such arguments as
“throwing Bible verses” at her,” the attorney said.
“When students objected to how she was pushing her personal views on
the class, she explained that it is her job ‘to educate the ignorant and
uneducated elements of society,’ that oppose this movement’s demands
and to correct their ‘hateful and close-minded’ views” Barham said.
Barham said the assignment violated the constitutional rights of
students by forcing them to advance a particular political agenda.
“The Constitution does not allow any government official to force
another person to adopt or advocate a particular moral or political
view. But this professor did just that with this assignment and thus
clearly violated freedoms protected by the First Amendment.”
Columbia State Community College
1665 Hampshire Pike
Columbia TN 38401
Phone- 931-540-2722
Contact page here.
This type of behavior from teachers and college professors, bringing their politics into the classroom, has become the rule rather than the exception.
Back in April, it was reported female
students were forced to kiss each other in front of other students and boys were taught how to identify "sluts," at a Linden Avenue Middle School in Red Hook, NY.
In
February 2013, after a three month
investigation into allegations that Sharon Sweet, an associate professor of mathematics at Brevard
Community College
in Florida, forced her students to sign a pledge to vote for Barack
Obama in the 2012 presidential election and Democrats up and down the
ticket, the college president, James Richey is
recommended the Board of Trustees fire her.
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has crafted a statement titled,
"Freedom in the Classroom," and it discusses the differences between teaching and indoctrination.
Indoctrination occurs when instructors dogmatically insist on the truth
of such propositions by refusing to accord their students the
opportunity to contest them. Indoctrination occurs when instructors
assert such propositions in ways that prevent students from expressing
disagreement......
As is explained in the
Academic Bill of Right: The 1915
General Report admonished faculty to avoid "taking
unfair advantage of the student's immaturity by indoctrinating him with
the teacher's own opinions before the student has had an opportunity
fairly to examine other opinions upon the matters in question, and
before he has sufficient knowledge and ripeness of judgment to be
entitled to form any definitive opinion of his own."
These are basic protections students should be guaranteed, yet time after time we see a pattern of the exact opposite occurring in classrooms across the country, where teachers and professors are abusing their position by forcing their political and religious, or in some cases anti-religious, views on the students in their classrooms.
