The University of Oklahoma said Monday that the graduate teaching assistant who assigned a failing grade to a student for a psychology essay on gender stereotypes will “no longer have instructional duties” at the university.
A graduate teaching assistant for an online psychology class was “arbitrary in the grading of this specific paper” and therefore will “no longer have instructional duties,” the university said in a statement. It is not immediately clear whether the teaching assistant faces further disciplinary action or is still on leave.
“We are committed to teaching students how to think, not what to think,” the university said. “The University will continue to review best practices to ensure that its instructors have the comprehensive training necessary to objectively assess their students’ work without limiting their ability to teach, inspire, and elevate our next generation.”
The university did not name the teaching assistant, but it appeared to be referring to Mel Curth, who NBC News previously reported gave the paper a zero. Curth did not immediately reply to a request for comment Tuesday.
Curth recently gave Samantha Fulnecky, a junior on a premed track, a zero on her essay about gender stereotypes for an online graduate psychology class.
The assignment asked students to write a 650-word response to a scholarly article about gender expectations in society, according to screenshots shared by Turning Point USA’s local chapter.
Fulnecky wrote in her essay that the scholarly article bothered her, and she described how God created men and women differently, according to the screenshots.
“Society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic and severely harms American youth,” she wrote.
Curth, who is transgender, gave Fulnecky a failing grade because her “paper ... does not answer the questions for this assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive,” according to the screenshots.
Protests and counterprotests have flared up on campus in response to the failing grade. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, called on the university’s governing board to get involved. And the issue has drawn national attention from conservative politicians and activists in recent weeks.
In the statement, the university said Fulnecky appealed the grade and filed a claim of religious discrimination.
Fulnecky’s 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 university said.
The university added that it had investigated Fulnecky’s religious discrimination claim but would not release the results of its investigation.
Curth had already been placed on leave in connection with the failing grade.
Fulnecky did not immediately reply to a request for comment Tuesday. On Monday, she reposted the university’s statement on her Instagram story and captioned the post “huge win.”
