Student Claims Religious Discrimination in College Grade

In a release yesterday, the American Center for Law and Justice explained a 12-page demand letter which it sent to California’s Victor Valley Community College on behalf of student Bethany Hauf. Hauf claims that her freedom of speech and religion were infringed by her English 101 instructor. The adjunct instructor, Michael Shefchik, approved as Hauf’s topic for a research paper, “Religion and Its Place Within Government”. However he stipulated that the topic must be treated objectively, and added: “I have one limiting factor – no mention of big “G” gods, i.e., one, true god argumentation.” Shefchik, an atheist, said that the reason for this limitation was that references to God could be offensive. Shefchik gave Ms. Hauf a low grade on her paper, claiming that she had written “off topic”. ACLJ argues that the grade was a result of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination against Hauf’s religious beliefs. It demands that Hauf’s grade be corrected and that her instructor apologize for his actions.