Education

Student Banned From Christian Theology Course Allowed Back In Class

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A university announced Monday that it would allow a student back in a Christian theology course after he was booted for saying there were only two genders.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania President Michael Driscoll permitted student Lake Ingle to re-enter the course and indefinitely suspended the student’s academic integrity board hearing. The school had kicked Ingle out of a Christian theology course after the student asserted the existence of only two genders.

“To help ensure that a positive learning environment is maintained, I have asked a senior faculty member with significant experience in the First Amendment and a long career as a successful classroom teacher to join the class as a monitor and a mentor for all,” Driscoll said at a Monday press conference.

Ingle objected to the existence of more than two genders, as well as to what he described as “anecdotal accounts” of “male privilege” and “mansplaining” in a Feb. 28 class. He also refuted the gender wage gap. Indiana University of Pennsylvania kicked the student out of the course following these remarks. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a free speech nonprofit, said it would be “highly inappropriate” if IUP suspended Ingle only because of his views.

“I have decided to indefinitely pause the formal university process without resolution,” the president stated. “To foster behaviors leading to a constructive learning environment, I have asked Assistant to the President for Social Equity, Dr. Pablo Mendoza, to facilitate discussions among members of the class. If these steps do not yield positive results, I reserve the option to restart the university’s formal processes.”

“Though I am curious how the Academic Integrity Board would have ruled, I am thankful I can continue the course and graduate on time,” Ingle remarked in a Facebook post. “So, I am considering this a victory.”

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Oklahoma Wesleyan University President Dr. Everett Piper, author of Not a Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth, offered Ingle the chance to take Christian theology at OWU while the student was barred from the course. (RELATED: Student Banned From Christian Theology Class Gets Offer To Take It Tuition-Free Somewhere Else)

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