Samantha Fulnecky’s zero grade on a short essay symbolizes everything that is wrong with the modern university. She did not receive a zero because she did not submit the assignment, because her writing was incomprehensible or because it failed to address the subject at hand. She got a zero because she referenced the Bible. The situation is inciting a national controversy.
Miss Fulnecky is a junior at the University of Oklahoma (OU). The course in question is a Psychology course. The assignment was straightforward—to read and review a published article.
Such assignments are common. The usual purpose is to ensure that the student takes the time to read and consider the assigned article. This assignment, however, carried a political charge; its subject concerned transgender patients.
Political Indoctrination
Like many undergraduate courses, no professor taught this class. Long ago, universities discovered that they could save money by assigning low-level classes to graduate assistants—students pursuing advanced degrees. The universities pay them a pittance.
So, two graduate students, Mel Curth and Megan Waldron, taught this class. When she submitted the paper, Miss Fulnecky was unaware that Mel Curth was actually a man presenting himself as a woman. As it happened, Miss Fulnecky’s fate was sealed because her paper opposed the “transgender” agenda. Using the Bible as a source of information gave the two graduate students an excuse to punish her.
Mr. Curth explained. “[The] paper that does not answer the questions for this assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive.”
A Second Opinion
An article by local television station Fox 25 reprints the essay, which runs at 630 words. A couple of excerpts will give readers the general tenor of Miss Fulnecky’s work.
“Gender roles and tendencies should not be considered ‘stereotypes.’ Women naturally want to do womanly things because God created us with those womanly desires in our hearts. The same goes for men…. I strongly disagree with the idea from the article that encouraging acceptance of diverse gender expressions could improve students’ confidence. Society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic and severely harms American youth.”
For a separate article, the same television station contacted an OU English professor, asking him to evaluate the paper. He commented that “This paper was soliciting her feelings. This paper was soliciting her reaction. This paper was soliciting her discussion on this topic…. I feel that this zero was a punitive grade…”
Reinforcements
OU’s chapter of Turning Point, the college-level conservative group once led by the late Charlie Kirk, has, at Miss Fulnecky’s request, become involved in the dispute. Additionally, State Representative Gabe Woolley presented the student with an official Citation of Recognition. Mr. Woolley’s Instagram post explains, “Today, we had the honor of presenting Samantha with a Citation of Recognition from the Oklahoma House of Representatives, District 98, for her steadfast convictions, her commitment to speaking from a foundation of truth, and her courage in shining a light on serious concerns within Oklahoma’s higher education system.”
The University recognized the mess it had on its hands. Initially, the bureaucrats tried to appear neutral. NBC News said that Mr. Curth is “on leave.” An official university statement, posted on the social media service X, says that, “To ensure fairness in the process, a full-time professor is serving as the course instructor for the remainder of the semester.”
This attempt to calm the waters satisfied no one. Those who supported Miss Fulnecky stepped up their support. In the meantime, the American Association of University Professors circulated a national petition in defense of Mr. Curth. The petition criticized “OU’s failure to stand up for its expressed commitment to academic freedom or defend the instructor from targeted harassment….”
A Just Decision
Regardless of the petition, by December 22, OU had little choice but to acknowledge the injustice done to Miss Fulnecky. The University’s OU Daily newspaper printed the official statement.
“Based on an examination of the graduate teaching assistant’s prior grading standards and patterns, as well as the graduate teaching assistant’s own statements related to this matter, it was determined that the graduate teaching assistant was arbitrary in the grading of this specific paper. The graduate teaching assistant will no longer have instructional duties at the University.”
As expected, Mr. Curth has retained legal counsel. The Washington Post carried an excerpt from the attorney’s statement. Of course, the statement maintains the fiction of Mr. Curth’s femininity.
“Ms. Curth continues to deny that she engaged in any arbitrary behavior regarding the student’s work, and is considering all of her legal remedies, including appealing this decision by the university.”
A Deeper Truth
On one level, this situation appears ironic. The leftists applied their ideology and got slapped down. Samantha Fulnecky is a kind of Davidic character slaying the woke Goliath. All of the cultural forces conspired to present and defend a lie. A single undergraduate student, armed with the truth, defeated them, making OU look foolish in the process.
However, something far more profound is at work here.
The Catholic Encyclopedia’s entry on education begins with a simple yet profound sentence, “In the broadest sense, education includes all those experiences by which intelligence is developed, knowledge acquired, and character formed.” It then expands on the idea. “The child is born with latent capacities which must be developed so as to fit him for the activities and duties of life…. The content of education is furnished by the previous acquisition of mankind in literature, art, and science, in moral, social, and religious principles.”
That description implies a concept so obvious that it could go unspoken during the reign of Pope Saint Pius X, when these words were composed—objective truth. Without truth, schooling is not education, but only indoctrination. In recent generations, modernists have tried to cast those who demand truth as obstacles. They told their students that truth is “discovered” through rigorous examination, and that the search required something called “academic freedom.”
The Oldest Lie
Holy Mother Church recognized this circumlocution. It is, literally, the oldest lie in the book. Genesis 3:4-5 explains, “And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death. For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.”
For centuries, the modern university has regaled its students with the same promise. “Abandon the time-worn beliefs of your fathers. Attach your hearts to new ideas. You can become your own god.”
The so-called transgender movement is, perhaps, the ultimate development of that lie. It requires its adherents to abandon the most basic truth of human life, first stated in Genesis 1:27, “And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.”
The modernists decry this simple truth. Their “doctors” devise methods by which the foolish can play God. They can fool around with hormones and ridiculous surgeries and pretend to become what they want to be. Ultimately, though, they only convert themselves into a walking, talking, breathing lie, spreading falsehood with every pronoun.
One of them tried to force Samantha Fulnecky to speak this lie. She refused, and the system tried to punish her. That attempt backfired, and the punisher was punished. Sic semper tyrannis.
Photo Credit: © Kit Leong – stock.adobe.com