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.”
A statement from the University of Oklahoma: pic.twitter.com/FzcjByOjpp
— University of Oklahoma (@UofOklahoma) December 22, 2025
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 to The Oklahoman. The graduate instructor awarded her a zero, saying she failed to follow assignment guidelines and describing the submission as, at times, offensive.
A second instructor for the course agreed with the grade, saying the assignment was not followed. Fulnecky appealed the decision, and the university later removed the assignment from her final grade. OU said the grade caused no academic harm.
The second professor was placed on leave last week following the fallout, according to the school’s Turning Point USA chapter. TPUSA OU said the professor encouraged students to protest the initial instructor’s removal and offered to excuse absences for those who participated.
Curth plans to appeal the university’s decision, with Curth’s attorney telling The Oklahoman that Curth denies engaging in arbitrary grading and is weighing all legal options, including a formal appeal.
“My client, Mel Curth, received notification from the University of Oklahoma that an investigation determined that she engaged in arbitrary grading of a student’s paper,” the graduate assistant’s attorney, Brittany Stewart, said in the statement. “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.”
(Featured Image Media Credit: Photo by Mitchell Leach/Unsplash)
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