Thursday, September 23, 2004
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- The University of North Carolina dealt appropriately with a lecturer who made discriminatory remarks about a student in an e-mail, the federal Department of Education said Wednesday.
But in a policy statement to educators, the department also pointed to the case as an example of intolerable behavior, and warned that it would do everything in its power to protect students from religious discrimination.
In February, instructor Elyse Crystall sent a message to students in her Literature and Cultural Diversity class after one student said during a class discussion that he opposed homosexuality.
Response
The e-mail said: "what we heard thursday at the end of class constitutes 'hate speech' and is completely unacceptable. it has created a hostile environment," she wrote.
She referred to the student by name, calling him "a white, heterosexual, christian male" who "can feel entitled to make violent, heterosexist comments and not feel marked or threatened or vulnerable."
Crystall apologized, though in a statement read at a news conference in March she said she had been pressured to do so. She still works for the university, a school spokeswoman said Wednesday, but it was not immediately clear if she still teaches.
UNC faculty members are now offered training in how to handle classroom discussions, and the school has drafted guidelines for how students and teachers should treat each other.
The education department's Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation in late February at the request of U.S. Rep. Walter Jones.