Court upholds CSC gag order
Instructor sues for having anti-gay views silenced
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Saturday, September 23, 2006
GALESBURG - A federal appeals court dismissed charges this week that Carl Sandburg College violated the constitutional rights of a part-time cosmetology instructor who was told to stop talking to students about her pro-Christian and anti-homosexual beliefs.The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday dismissed the lawsuit filed by Martha Louise Piggee regarding events that took place in September 2002, when Piggee gave Jason Ruel - a gay Jewish student - two pamphlets that said homosexuality was sinful and instructed readers to worship with Christians, read the Bible and be baptized.
Ruel filed a formal complaint. A committee of college officials concluded the incident qualified as sexual harassment, then told Piggee not to try to influence students' beliefs about religious, social and sexual matters. She was not terminated.
Piggee sued the college, the board of trustees and five college administrators. The suit claimed the college violated her due process rights and her constitutional rights to free speech and that the college's sexual harassment policy was not clear.
The case was argued Feb. 9, 2006, and the suit was dismissed Tuesday by Judge Diane P. Wood before a three-member panel of the 7th Circuit Court.
Wood said the college had the right to insist Piggee refrain from proselytizing to students while serving as an instructor of cosmetology because Piggee's expression of beliefs was not related to her job of teaching cosmetology.
"Indeed, if it did anything, it inhibited her ability to perform that job by undermining her relationship with Ruel and other students who disagreed with her or were offended by her expressions of her beliefs," Wood wrote.
Piggee's attorney Brian Heller called the college's restrictions on Piggee a "gag order." He said he will ask the appellate court to reconsider points he feels were not directly addressed in the Tuesday's decision, such as whether Piggee had the right to respond to students' questions about religion or to discuss religion with students informally outside the classroom between September and December 2002.
"There is not a court case ever in the history of the U.S. that has suggested that a college could so gag a professor," said Heller.
Heller said the beauty salon where Piggee gave the pamphlets to the student was a classroom environment, but that beauty salons are also retail establishments where "free-wheeling discussions" on topics from sports to religion are common.
"Basically they told Ms. Piggee that she can't participate in those free-wheeling discussions," Heller said. "I think it needs to be clear that she never interjected her beliefs in the formal class discussion."
Heller said his client intends to continue with the case he may ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the circuit court's decision.
"She wants to be told the college can't censor her speech," Heller said.
Carl Sandburg College officials declined to comment on the case because litigation is ongoing. Attorney Thomas Piskorski of Chicago represents the Carl Sandburg College, the board of trustees and the administrators.
Piggee began teaching part time in the cosmetology department at CSC in 1984, but only taught when the college offered her a contract for a particular semester or when she was needed as a substitute teacher. She was offered contracts to teach during the summer and fall semesters in 2002.
In June 2002, cosmetology student Ruel told Piggee he was Jewish and homosexual.
On Sept. 5, 2002, Piggee gave Ruel two Christian pamphlets entitled "Sin City" and "Doom Town." Both were formatted like comic books and depicted homosexuals as rapists and child molesters.
According to court documents, "Sin City" included panels showing a man holding a sign saying "Homosexuality is an abomination," a priest stating he ruined young peoples' lives by enticing them into a "gay lifestyle" and a man telling the priest "there is only one way to heaven - and it's JESUS!"
"Doom Town" featured panels showing a group of homosexuals threatening to infect the nation's blood supply with the AIDS virus, a caption stating "God DOESN'T make homosexuals; if He did, He wouldn't condemn them!" and a gay man saying he became a "modern-day Sodomite" because his teachers told him it was a "harmless alternative lifestyle," but now he is "doomed to hell!"
Ruel submitted a formal written complaint to Carl Sandburg College on Sept. 17, 2002, and requested Piggee be fired. In the complaint, Ruel said he was "appalled" and that he did not appreciate being called an "abomination, a child molester, or a rapist and a deviant," according to court documents.
Piggee allegedly approached Ruel two days later in the college's cosmetology center and asked if he was trying to get her fired. Ruel filed another complaint.
College officials then asked Piggee whether she would stop talking about religion in the classroom and Piggee reportedly responded, "I have to do what I have to do."
Piggee was told by college officials not to discuss religion or sexual orientation so as to not create a hostile learning environment for students. She completed her contract for the fall 2002 semester, but has not been offered a contract to teach at the college since.
Heller said Piggee remains on a list of substitute cosmetology faculty for the college.
