Christian College Student Sues California College for Violation of Free Speech Rights

Jonathan Lopez's Professor stopped him in the middle of his assigned speech calling him a "fascist bastard" and prohibited his defense of true Marriage.

WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) - In November, 2008 California voters again defended marriage as between one man and one woman and opposed attempts to grant legal equivalency to homosexual 'marriage'.

A few weeks later, Jonathan Lopez did the same thing during a classroom presentation in his public speaking class at Los Angeles City College. He defended his opposition to homosexual "marriage" and gave reasons for his support of marriage as only properly between one man and one woman.

Reportedly, Lopez's Professor abruptly stopped him, calling him a "fascist bastard" in front of the class and then prohibited him from finishing his speech.

Later, the student approached the Professor, John Matteson, to inquire as to his grade. The faculty member then allegedly told him to "ask God what your grade is." Lopez also reported that Matteson threatened to have him expelled when he complained about the incident with school officials.

This entire sequence of events has resulted in the filing of a Federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court pitting this flagrant violation of the Christian students rights to Free Speech under the US Constitution against the school code on so called "offensive speech".

Lopez is seeking financial damages in addition to a ruling that would strike down the code which bars students from uttering "offensive" statements in the future.

Studying toward his Associate of Arts degree, Lopez describes himself as a committed Christian who must speak out openly on issues as they relate to his deeply held faith.

The Los Angeles Times reported that they had contacted the Alliance Defense Fund of Scottsdale, AZ, the group representing the student. Alliance staff counsel David J. Hacker told the paper that Lopez was a victim of religious discrimination.

"He was expressing his faith during an open-ended assignment, but when the professor disagreed with some minor things he mentioned, the professor shut him down," Hacker said. "Basically, colleges and universities should give Christian students the same rights to free expression as other students."

Hacker also said that the Alliance Defense Fund was involved in a similar case in 2006 where Missouri State University tried to discipline a Christian social-work student who had refused to support adoptions by same-sex couples. In that case, the suit was settled out of court, with the agreement that the social work program would be reviewed.

Los Angeles City College was closed for Presidents Day so officials were not able to be contacted. In addition to the City College, which operates nine satellite campuses, the lawsuit includes the board of trustees, John Matteson, and several administrators.

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Hacker reported that they had received a letter from the Dean, Allison Jones, stating that two students had been "deeply offended" by Lopez's address, one of whom stated that "this student should have to pay some price for preaching hate in the classroom."

The district, however, said it deemed Lopez's complaint "extremely serious in nature" and had launched a private disciplinary process. Hacker indicated that the district's response was insufficient. He is hoping for a jury trial.

The letter, according to Hacker, accused Lopez of offending students as well as failing to ensure that this type of action wouldn't happen to other students.

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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor and Home and Family Editor for Catholic Online.

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