Rebuffed by one court, counseling student seeks expulsion reprieve for her religious objections

[SecularMotion]

A grad student at Augusta State University who sued the school over a clash between her grad program requirements and her religious beliefs on gay people is now asking a federal appeals court to block the university from expelling her.

This is an interesting case.

In 2010, Jennifer Keeton, 24, sued after the college required her to complete a remediation program or face expulsion for her anti-gay beliefs. Her lawsuit states that her views on gays were known to faculty at the university because of her “disagreement in several class discussions and in written assignments with the gay and lesbian ‘lifestyle.’”

Backed by the nonprofit Christian advocacy Alliance Defense Fund, Keeton maintains in her lawsuit: “[Augusta State University] faculty have promised to expel Miss Keeton from the graduate Counselor Education Program not because of poor academic showing or demonstrated deficiencies in clinical performance, but simply because she has communicated both inside and outside the classroom that she holds to Christian ethical convictions on matters of human sexuality and gender identity. The faculty identifies Miss Keeton’s views as indicative of her improper professional disposition to persons of such populations.”

http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2011/11/29/rebuffed-by-one-court-counseling-student-seeks-expulsion-reprieve-for-her-religious-objections-to-gays/?cxntfid=blogs_get_schooled_blog

[cleanhippie]

1. A counselor who hates gay people, huh?

She will make a wonderful counselor, I'm sure. Telling other bigots that it's ok to hate other humans because of your religious beliefs is just what we need more of.

[struggle4progress]

2. Here's a pdf link to ACA Code of Ethics:

http://www.counseling.org/Files/FD.ashx?guid=ab7c1272-71c4-46cf-848c-f98489937dda

Perhaps the issues lie here:

A.4. Avoiding Harm and Imposing Values
A.4.b. Personal Values
Counselors are aware of their own values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors and avoid imposing values that are inconsistent with counseling
goals. Counselors respect the diversity of clients, trainees, and research participants.

A.11. Termination and Referral
A.11.b. Inability to Assist Clients
If counselors determine an inability to be of professional assistance to clients, they avoid entering or continuing counseling relationships. Counselors are knowledgeable about culturally and clinically appropriate referral resources and suggest these alternatives. If clients decline the suggested referrals, counselors should discontinue the relationship.

C.1. Knowledge of Standards
Counselors have a responsibility to read, understand, and follow the ACA Code of Ethics and adhere to applicable laws and regulations.

C.2.g. Impairment
Counselors are alert to the signs of impairment from their own physical, mental, or emotional problems and refrain from offering or providing professional services when such impairment is likely to harm a client or others. They seek assistance for problems that reach the level of professional impairment, and, if necessary, they limit, suspend, or terminate their professional responsibilities until such time it is determined that they may safely resume their work. Counselors assist colleagues or supervisors in recognizing their own professional impairment and provide consultation and assistance when warranted with colleagues or supervisors showing signs of impairment and intervene as appropriate to prevent imminent harm to clients. (See A.11.b., F.8.b.)

C.5. Nondiscrimination
Counselors do not condone or engage in discrimination based on age, culture, disability, ethnicity, race, religion/spirituality, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status/ partnership, language preference, socioeconomic status, or any basis proscribed
by law. Counselors do not discriminate against clients, students, employees, supervisees, or research participants in a manner that has a negative impact on these persons.

E.8. Multicultural Issues/Diversity in Assessment
Counselors use with caution assessment techniques that were normed on populations other than that of the client. Counselors recognize the effects of age, color, culture, disability, ethnic group, gender, race, language preference, religion, spirituality, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status on test administration and interpretation, and place test results in proper perspective with other relevant factors. (See A.2.c., E.5.b.)

F.8.b. Impairment
Counselors-in-training refrain from offering or providing counseling services when their physical, mental, or emotional problems are likely to harm a client or others. They are alert to the signs of impairment, seek assistance for problems, and notify their program supervisors when they are aware that they are unable to effectively provide services. In addition, they seek appropriate professional services for themselves to remediate the problems that are interfering with their ability to provide services to others. (See A.1., C.2.d., C.2.g.)

F.11.c. Multicultural/Diversity Competence
Counselor educators actively infuse multicultural/diversity competency in their training and supervision practices. They actively train students to gain awareness, knowledge, and skills in the competencies of multicultural practice. Counselor educators include case examples, role-plays, discussion questions, and other classroom activities that promote and represent various cultural perspectives.

[cleanhippie]

3. So what say you, then? Expell or reinstate?

[struggle4progress]

7. On the basis of what? I know nothing whatsoever about the actual details of this case.

In general, I expect any counselor has some personal peculiarities that would prevent effective counseling of some persons, and I would expect the system to recognize that

In this case, her program seems to have decided she's not fit for the degree. I don't know the details. If I knew the details, I might still be unable to render any competent judgment on the matter, not being a professional in the field. I'm generally suspicious of litigation from these rightwing legal institutes, and inclined to regard it as a form of extremist organizing -- but legally all that means is: I'd never be seated on a jury for such a case

Bottom line:

I don't need to have or express an opinion on this. The courts can handle it imo. That's why they're paid the big bucks over there

[darkstar3]

11. You spend an awful lot of time not expressing opinions here.

[struggle4progress]

14. Facts first, analysis later. Student was expelled, it seems, on the basis of code of ethics.

So I excerpted possibly relevant sections, as part of my fact search. It's minor progress, of course, and I found it difficult to make further progress, so stopped there. If you can bring further facts to the table, that bring us closer to a clear picture, feel free to do so

[TygrBright]

4. I'm fairly sure that Bob Jones and or Liberty U have "counseling" programs.

As well as a number of other homophobic denominational boutique "colleges" and "universities." Why not go to school at one of them? Augusta State's program is clearly oriented to prepare counselors for licensure and certification in conjuction with currently accepted ACA standards.

If she wants to become a homophobic "counselor" working under the aegis of some homophobic institution, she can doubtless do so without completing a graduate degree at Augusta.

The presumption that Christian belief and homophobia are synonymous makes me tired, though.

Many homophobes profess Christianity.

Not all who profess Christianity are homophobic.

Not all who are homophobic profess Christianity.

wearily,
Bright

[SecularMotion]

5. Tell it to the Alliance Defense Fund

They seem to have no problem equating bigotry with "religious freedom".

http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/

[cleanhippie]

6. In my more than 4 decades on this planet

I have ever met someone who espouses hatred for homosexuals that was not a self-identified Christian.

Dies that mean that there are not any non-Christian gay haters? No, but they are few and far between if they do exist.

[TygrBright]

8. There are plenty of Muslim, Jewish, and even some Sikh and Hindu homophobes.

I've even known a few agnostic homophobes.

One of the problems believers have to grapple with in the quest for spiritual maturity is the extent to which the belief you profess absolves you from having to think through your own moral and ethical decisions.

It is a hurdle that many believers stumble at lifelong, unfortunately.

The extent to which belief is used as a tool to manipulate believers for political, economic, and social ends frequently requires the use of scapegoats and hate objects to facilitate that manipulation. This makes that hurdle a very large and prevalent one.

But there is plenty of homophobia that arises from cultural and social roots that are only secondarily related to religions, and such homophobia can affect even non-believers.

My non-believing (I don't think he's ever thought enough about it to call it "atheism" ) brother-in-law hates "dirty (epithets)" because (I suspect) he absorbed a lot of homophobia during his military service, among other things. He was raised by parents who joined but never attended a mainline protestant church, never sent him to sunday school or gave him religious education, and he has great contempt for religion and religious people, so I can't attribute it to belief.

informatively,
Bright

[LeftishBrit]

9. Actually yes, there are quite a few non-Christian homophobes

These include hard-line members of other religions - to take an extreme example, some Muslim theocracies have the death penalty for gays.

But in the UK, although we certainly have quite a few religious homophobes, there are a number of people who are socially ultraconservative (generally associated here with also being economically right-wing), for its own sake, and are not particularly Christian. For instance Melanie Phillips is Jewish and not, I think, particularly religious; and Norman Tebbit is agnostic. Such people support religious traditions because they think that they encourage socially right-wing policies, rather than supporting socially right-wing policies because they think their religion requires it. Also, at least in the UK, young bullies and gay-bashers who attack gays are often not religious, but proving their 'toughness' by persecuting those whom they see as 'different'. Often, the same people who hate gays are also virulently sexist about gender roles in general; certain forms of religion encourage the attitude, but you can have it without religion.

[MarkCharles]

10. If one doesn't believe in gravity can one become a physicist?

Just asking.

Isn't it sort of absurd to expect to practice a modern profession under the best practices and standards of the profession if one doesn't want to follow those standards?

Perhaps she is in the wrong professional training program.

[iris27]

12. Looks to me like the school would risk losing its accreditation

for their counseling program if they allowed her to graduate without going through the remediation program. The ACA and ASCA set the standards.

[darkstar3]

13. And good on those organizations.

A person with a bias so strong that they can't let it go in multiple essays and group discussions has no business working with the emotionally vulnerable.