Gallaudet under fire after official placed on leave over ballot signature

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Opponents and supporters of same-sex marriage are urging Gallaudet University to reinstate an administrator placed on paid leave after she signed a ballot petition calling for a vote on the issue in Maryland.

By mid-afternoon Friday, more than 15,000 people had signed an online petition calling on the university for the deaf and hard of hearing to reverse itself and bring back Angela McCaskill, its chief diversity officer. The school disciplined McCaskill on Wednesday, saying her signature on a petition for a referendum on same-sex marriage was “inappropriate.”


The petition to reinstate McCaskill was placed prominently on the Web site of the Family Research Council, a conservative lobbying group that opposes same-sex marriage. On the council’s Facebook page, more than 3,000 people “liked” a post demanding that the school “Reinstate Dr. McCaskill.”

“Gallaudet University’s action underscores that far more is at stake in redefining marriage than two people walking down the aisle,” FRC President Tony Perkins said in a statement, adding that if the ballot measure passes, he expects further discrimination against defenders of traditional marriage.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), who supports same-sex marriage, and Marylanders for Marriage Equality have also called for the school to reinstate McCaskill.

“Everyone is entitled to free speech and to their own opinion about Question 6, which is about treating everyone fairly and equally under the law,” said Josh Levin, the campaign manager for the marriage equality group.

The groundswell of support for McCaskill extended to the megachurches in Prince George’s County, where opposition to same-sex marriage is particularly strong.

Lee P. Washington, pastor of Reid Temple AME Church, one of the largest churches in the Washington region and a hub of social and political activity, encouraged Gallaudet to take back McCaskill, who is a member of his church. In a statement, Washington said that McCaskill and her family had withstood “threats and intimidation” related to her signing the ballot petition and being placed on leave.

McCaskill was among more than 200,000 Maryland residents who signed a petition for a referendum on same-sex marriage. The public vote was favored by opponents of a same-sex marriage law that O’Malley signed in March.

Although petitions are available for public viewing, this petition was broadly disseminated after the Washington Blade, a newspaper that serves the gay community, posted it online in the summer, including a list of the names and addresses of people who had signed it and a color-coded map showing “concentrations” of signatories.

Derek McCoy, chairman of the Maryland Marriage Alliance, which supports marriage only between a man and a woman, said friends and relatives of McCaskill’s told him that after her name became public, people approached her and said, “Why did you sign the petition? Why do you hate me?” McCoy characterized it as harassment and bullying.

People who favor limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples are being made to feel like outcasts, McCoy said. That’s why the McCaskill case is striking a nerve.

“She was at Gallaudet for 23 years,” he said. “Every day she was performing her duty with integrity. Then, when they find out she signed a referendum, all of a sudden she’s incapable of doing her job. It’s incredible.”

University officials have been tight-lipped about what they may be considering for McCaskill.

Their only public comment came Wednesday, when Gallaudet President T. Alan Hurwitz said he had placed her on administrative leave because she had “participated in a legislative initiative that some feel is inappropriate for an individual serving as Chief Diversity Officer.” He said he would be mulling over “the appropriate next steps.”

The university declined to be more specific Friday about whether there is a specific policy McCaskill violated or to explain why it was inappropriate for her to sign a ballot petition.

The FRC’s Perkins said in his statement that Hurwitz should be fired.

He compared the university president’s action to mayors who chastised Chick-fil-A after its chief executive spoke out against same-sex marriage, and he predicted that the punishment against McCaskill would have a chilling effect on people voicing some views.

“If this is allowed to stand, others will follow,” he said.

John Wagner contributed to this report.
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Gallaudet under fire after official placed on leave over ballot signature - The Washington Post
 
She should be reinstated so I'm delighted there's been a big push of support for her. A country that claims to support free speech must stand by it when someone disagrees with a given position or view point. It's not free speech for some, but for all. They should reimburse her for lost pay as well and publicly apologize to her.

Laura
 
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Ny7limVDQ]All About Dr. Angela McCaskill - YouTube[/ame]
 
Lau2046 said:
She should be reinstated so I'm delighted there's been a big push of support for her. A country that claims to support free speech must stand by it when someone disagrees with a given position or view point. It's not free speech for some, but for all. They should reimburse her for lost pay as well and publicly apologize to her.

Laura
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I think you are missing a piece of information: She's on PAID leave and she still getting paid while on leave.
 
Foxrac said:
I think you are missing a piece of information: She's on PAID leave and she still getting paid while on leave.
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I'm glad, I don't know what basis they would have to deny her salary, but they should still reinstate her and publicly apologize for their poor judgement.

Laura
 
I have nothing to blame because sign the petition is public - that what I didn't know until recently and Gallaudet University is very spreading easily if you share any views because they are smaller university.

I have negative view on article - FRC and I never liked FRC, so shame on FRC because they opposed all parts of homosexuality, not restricted to gay marriage.

I don't think it was only Alan Hurwitz made decision but the cabinets or boards made him to place her on paid leave, however I don't know about how is system works at upper office of university.
 
Lau2046 said:
I'm glad, I don't know what basis they would have to deny her salary, but they should still reinstate her and publicly apologize for their poor judgement.

Laura
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I think it will be uneasy for her to be in same position because Gallaudet University is very extremely GLBT friendly university and there are some students personally don't like homosexuality on their personal belief without interfere with government. 1,500 students (undergraduate and graduate) got email and it is already on public, that will be not easy recover from uncomfortable and upset students. I think that she will have better chance to recover if she changes the job position with same pay, also less likely to interact with students who support GLBT.

It is very messed up and the damage has done, if you ask me, I'm talking about Gallaudet University, not herself.
 
This is not an issue of free speech. This is an issue of an administrator for a university breaking her contract terms that would have held her to a standard different than no employees of a university. She is publicly stating her discrimatory views on sexual orientation. Howcan she do this as a DIVERSITY officer for gally?
Get rid of her and find someone with real ethics. If you believe otherwise you are eating too much clam chowder
 
Gally is smart to place her on paid leave pending investigation because since Gally is receiving federal funding... they must abide by Title VI and Title IX which specifically required university to take immediate action if there is a possible case of discrimination toward students.

in short - Gally administration is investigating whether or not if students are demeaned, embarrassed, or harmed by McCaskill's action.
 
Even a peon like me has to sign a non discriminatory contract. Gally has. To cover its ass and get rid of her,, or at the very least put her where her ethical judgement would not reflect on the university.
 
Diversity Officer Suspended for Supporting Traditional Marriage

he head diversity officer for Washington, D.C.'s Gallaudet University, the nation's premier college for the deaf, has been suspended from her position after it was revealed that she had signed a petition in Maryland to overturn that state's same-sex marriage law. Gallaudet's president, T. Alan Hurwitz, issued a statement indicating that Dr. Angela McCaskill, who signed the petition in July, had been placed on administrative leave immediately pending an investigation.

Dr. McCaskill is the first deaf black woman to earn a doctorate from the university, and has worked at Gallaudet for 23 years, beginning the diversity position last year.

Another faculty member reportedly spotted McCaskill’s name on the Maryland petition, and filed a complaint against her with the university. Dr. McCaskill explained that she had signed the petition at her church, after her pastor had spoken about the biblical position on traditional marriage. She said that her husband had pointed out the petition and she signed it as she was leaving church.

“It recently came to my attention that Dr. McCaskill has participated in a legislative initiative some feel is inappropriate for an individual serving as Chief Diversity Officer,” Hurwitz wrote on the university's Facebook page. The 160,000 signatures on the petition was enough to place the law before Maryland voters, who will have an opportunity to repeal it on November 6. Hurwitz said that he would “use the extended time while she is on administrative leave to determine the appropriate next steps taking into consideration the duties of this position at the university.”

McCaskill's office is charged with providing support for minority groups at the university, including homosexual and other sexually confused students, and from all reports she was doing a satisfactory job. PlanetDeafQueer.com, a website catering to deaf homosexuals, reported that according to university sources, “Dr. McCaskill has been an ardent supporter of Gallaudet’s LGBTQA Resource Center, which was formed in October 2010 and is part of the Office of Diversity and Equity for Students.”

The deaf homosexual website quoted an anonymous university staff member as saying that “in her role as Chief Diversity Officer, Dr. McCaskill has made many advances for deaf people of color, LGBT, and other minorities at Gallaudet.” And a student at the school was quoted as saying that McCaskill has been “a great ally to the LGBT community and supported many of the LGBTQA Resource Center’s programs.”

Surprisingly, McCaskill has received support from a group working to retain same-sex marriage in Maryland. “We strongly disagree with the decision to put the chief diversity officer on leave and hope she is reinstated immediately,” said Josh Levin, campaign manager for Marylanders for Marriage Equality. “Everyone is entitled to free speech and to their own opinion about Question 6, which is about treating everyone fairly and equally under the law.”

That opinion was echoed by the conservative, Christian group working to overturn the same-sex marriage measure. “I join an ever-growing number of Marylanders in expressing my complete dismay over Gallaudet University's decision to place Dr. Angela McCaskill on administrative leave for signing the marriage referendum petition,” said Derek McCoy, chairman of the Maryland Marriage Alliance. “Quite simply, it was well within her rights to sign the petition.”

Robert Muise, senior counsel with the American Freedom Law Center, told Focus on the Family's CitizenLink.com that McCaskill's situation is becoming more common as leftist intolerance increases. “This is just a microcosm of a really larger problem that I’m seeing across the country,” Muise said: “Christians who want to engage in their religious belief and express their views are being punished.”

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council weighed in on the issue, saying that an individual should “no more be punished for signing a petition than they should be for voting. This is a basic citizen's right to participation in our democratic process. Gallaudet University claims to believe in diversity, but clearly their definition of diversity doesn't allow for dissent when it comes to marriage.”

Perkins noted that up until just a few years ago, “a decision punishing an employee for engaging in the democratic process would have been jaw-dropping. However, Gallaudet University's discriminatory action reflects the troubling trend of intimidation and bullying tactics against those who uphold marriage as the union of one man and one woman.”

Even the Baltimore Sun newspaper condemned the decision to suspend McCaskill, demanding in an editorial that “University president T. Alan Hurwitz owes her an apology and immediate reinstatement.” The editorial noted that while how a person votes is considered private information, “virtually everything else about our participation in the electoral process is public: what petitions we sign, what parties we register with, when we vote, which candidates we donate money to and how much. Might someone consider it inappropriate if a chief diversity officer registered as a Republican, since that party's platform opposes gay marriage?”

The paper declared that Gallaudet “has a right to evaluate Ms. McCaskill based on how well she does her job, not what she thinks, and there appears to have been no indication before this incident that she was insensitive to the needs of gay and lesbian students on campus.”

IntheCapital.com, a news site focused on Washington, D.C., noted that “according to UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, Hurwitz's act of putting McCaskill on paid administrative leave because she had 'participated in a legislative initiative' could be perceived as a criminal violation.” The news site quoted D.C.'s city code as stating that any person who “by threats or intimidation, interferes with, or attempts to interfere with, the right of any qualified registered elector to sign or not to sign any initiative, referendum, or recall petition” may be guilty of a crime punishable by a $10,000 fine and a year in jail.

While the petition McCaskill signed was in Maryland, not D.C., Volokh argued that the city code could still “indirectly apply” should McCaskill decide to file a civil suit against the school.
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Diversity Officer Suspended for Supporting Traditional Marriage
 
And they should be under fire! She did this on her own personal time in a private place. Shame on them! What about her rights?! :mad:
 
The heads at GU should be put on suspension....

Laura
 
Gallaudet University is very extremely GLBT friendly university and no way for McCaskill to be reinstated because her reputation is damaged because of petition to government.

She should know that petition is public, not private, also she's imposing her belief on us. The government represents all people, regardless on belief and they are supposed to not discriminate us.
 
With regards to employment, McCaskill's only accountability is to the University. Unless the University can prove that her beliefs in some way caused her to discriminate against students, she should be reinstated immediately. I have not seen one accusation of discrimination against students. The only person who has had their rights violated is McCaskill. This is a travesty.....an amazing and successful woman being targeted by political correctness.
 
deafbirk said:
This is not an issue of free speech. This is an issue of an administrator for a university breaking her contract terms that would have held her to a standard different than no employees of a university. She is publicly stating her discrimatory views on sexual orientation. Howcan she do this as a DIVERSITY officer for gally?
Get rid of her and find someone with real ethics. If you believe otherwise you are eating too much clam chowder
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Breaking her contract terms? You're saying that by signing this contract with a FEDERALLY CHARTERED University McCaskill forfeited her constitutional right to participate in the political process??? That is a very interesting position.....Does this FEDERALLY CHARTERED university also tell people who they can vote for?
 
deafbirk said:
This is not an issue of free speech. This is an issue of an administrator for a university breaking her contract terms that would have held her to a standard different than no employees of a university. She is publicly stating her discrimatory views on sexual orientation. Howcan she do this as a DIVERSITY officer for gally?
Get rid of her and find someone with real ethics. If you believe otherwise you are eating too much clam chowder
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How ethical is it to fire someone for exercising their rights as a citizen of this country? Again, either the first amendment applies to all or it doesn't exist.


Laura
 
TXgolfer said:
Breaking her contract terms? You're saying that by signing this contract with a FEDERALLY CHARTERED University McCaskill forfeited her constitutional right to participate in the political process??? That is a very interesting position.....Does this FEDERALLY CHARTERED university also tell people who they can vote for?
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you are confusing the legal definition of federally chartered university. it is strictly limited to financial matter.

Gally is a private university. It does not have same standard as public university does... meaning it has more leeway to restrict First Amendment.
 
Jiro said:
you are confusing the legal definition of federally chartered university. it is strictly limited to financial matter.

Gally is a private university. It does not have same standard as public university does... meaning it has more leeway to restrict First Amendment.
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Strictly limited to financial matter?? Is that why congress is allowed three voting seats on the board. of trustees? (Currently. Sherrod Brown,Lynn Woolsey. and Kevin Yoder). Is that why it took an act of congress (literally) to amend the schools charter for a name change? How about the fact that the school has to report to the Dept. of Education?

If she is fired,I would love to be the one handling her case. An extremely successful, African-American,Deaf woman with a PhD fired for taking part in the political process. Heh
 
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