Court says student’s faith may have led to expulsion

[tortoise1956]

11. After reading the opinion, I think that the court decision was based on sound reasoning.

Some excerpts (from various sections of the decision):

1. Not only did Ward’s referral request respect these provisions, but another
provision of the code of ethics expressly permits values-based referrals. “If counselors
determine an inability to be of professional assistance to clients,” the code says that they
may refer them. R. 14-7 at 50. As a specific application of this principle, one
implicating secular and faith-based values, the code allows counselors to “choose to
work or not work with terminally ill clients who wish to explore their end-of-life
options.” R. 14-7 at 49. Consistent with these provisions, Ward’s expert, Dr. E. Warren
Throckmorton, the former chairman of the American Mental Health Counselors
Association’s ethics committee (and a former president of the organization), said that
Ward’s request to refer this client complied with the code.

2. Several of the textbooks used in Ward’s classes likewise say that sound
counseling practices permit values-based referrals. One textbook, Interviewing and
Change Strategies for Helpers, says that “some value judgments by both helper and
client may be inevitable . . . . If the client selects goals that severely conflict with the
helper’s values . . . the helper may decide to refer the client.” R. 79-5 at 6. Another
textbook, Becoming a Helper, says that “the assumption that counseling is value-neutral
is no longer tenable,” R. 79-3 at 8, and quotes a 2003 study finding that some forty
percent of professional counselors have referred clients due to values conflicts over
sexual practices.

3. No matter what the code of ethics means and no matter how it has been
interpreted, the university defendants respond that the school had a different policy for
practicum students—a “blanket rule” that they could not refer any clients. Reply Br. at
13. But a reasonable jury could find that this was an after-the-fact invention. The
university cannot point to any policy articulated in its course materials, the student
handbook or anything else forbidding practicum students from making referrals. The
student manual, to the contrary, includes a chapter dedicated to “Referrals,” R. 14-9 at
15, which says that students “may at times need to refer a client for additional counseling
services outside the Counseling Clinic” and encourages students “to first consult with
their Faculty Supervisor for assistance in making the referral.” Id.
At no point did any professor tell Ward about a no-referral policy—not during
the informal review, not during the formal review, not even in the letter dismissing her
from the program

With this in mind, it's hard to take the side of the university. They screwed up by the numbers, and they got caught.

Also, this was a reversal of a summary judgment by the district. This allows the case to go to court. It does NOT find in her favor.