Grad Instructor Who Flunked Student Over Bible Reference Dismissed From Job

A graduate teaching assistant who issued a failing grade to a University of Oklahoma (OU) student for referencing the Bible in a psychology essay will no longer have instructional duties at the university, officials said Monday.

Samantha Fulnecky received a zero on her psychology essay after Mel Curth, her transgender-identified instructor, faulted her for relying on personal and religious beliefs to challenge the article’s conclusions, despite assignment guidelines that allowed students to question the topic’s premises. OU said it removed the graduate instructor from teaching after reviewing the individual’s grading standards, past grading patterns, and statements related to the incident, which the university described as arbitrary.

“A student’s claim of religious discrimination on an individual assignment in an online Psychology Course taught by a graduate teaching assistant has come to resolution. As stated previously, the student followed two available processes at the University: the grade appeals process in the college and she made a formal claim of illegal religious discrimination,” OU said in a statement. “As already announced, the grade appeal was decided in favor of the student, removing the assignment completely from the student’s total point value of the class, resulting in no academic harm to the student.”

The decision followed a religious-discrimination complaint that Fulnecky filed after she received a zero on the assignment. Fulnecky cited the Bible in a roughly 650-word essay responding to an article on gender roles for a psychology course, according