A public university in Ohio has agreed to pay a professor $400,000 after he sued over a dispute involving a trans student\u2019s pronouns.<\/p>\n
Dr Nicholas Meriwether, a philosophy professor at Shawnee State University, sued the school in 2018 after he said it unfairly punished him for refusing to use the student\u2019s preferred pronouns. Four years later, his lawyers say the school has rescinded that punishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis case forced us to defend what used to be a common belief \u2013 that nobody should be forced to contradict their core beliefs just to keep their job,\u201d attorney Travis Barham said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019re pleased to see the university recognize that the First Amendment guarantees Dr Meriwether \u2013 and every other American \u2013 the right to speak and act in a manner consistent with one\u2019s faith and convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his lawsuit, Dr Meriwether says that in 2018 he was accosted by a student who objected to being called \u201csir,\u201d demanding to be referred to with feminine pronouns. Dr Meriwether declined, saying this went against his Christian beliefs, but offered to simply address the student by name.<\/p>\n
That was not enough for the student \u2013 or for the university, which sent Dr Meriwether a written warning about his behavior.<\/p>\n
The professor then sued, hiring lawyers from the non-profit Alliance Defending Freedom. A federal district court dismissed the suit, but in 2021 an appellate court revived it, giving Dr Meriwether and his lawyers a chance to argue his First Amendment rights had been violated.<\/p>\n
Rather than fight the case in court, Shawnee State University chose to settle.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter four years of litigation, Shawnee State University made an economic decision to settle the Meriwether case,\u201d the school said in a statement. \u201cThough we have decided to settle, we adamantly deny that anyone at Shawnee State deprived Dr Meriwether of his free speech rights or his rights to freely exercise his religion.\u201d<\/p>\n
The school also defended its original decision to reprimand Dr Meriwether, saying its intention was to protect students from \u201cbigotry and discrimination.\u201d After four years of legal battles, however, defending that decision had become too expensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the course of this lawsuit, it became clear that the case was being used to advance divisive social and political agendas at a cost to the university and its students,\u201d the university said. \u201cThat cost is better spent on fulfilling Shawnee State\u2019s mission of service to our students, families and community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A public university in Ohio has agreed to pay a professor $400,000 after he sued over a dispute involving a trans student\u2019s pronouns. Dr Nicholas Meriwether, a philosophy professor at Shawnee State University, sued the school in 2018 after he said it unfairly punished him for refusing to use the student\u2019s preferred pronouns. Four years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n