MSU Dismisses Student Because of Religious Beliefs

Missouri State University is facing a lawsuit for discriminating against a student.

MSU expelled Andrew Cash right before he was scheduled to graduate from the counseling program. Cash had expressed concern over counseling gay couples because of his religious convictions.

The student's attorney, Thomas Olp with the Thomas More Society, said universities are supposed to be places to exchange ideas and values.

"An educator should not permit her own ideology and agenda to ruin the educational opportunities of her students," Olp said.

The students are required to complete clinical internship hours. Cash began his internship with the University-approved Springfield Marriage and Family Institute, a Christian-based counseling agency. 

A class presentation, approved by Cash's instructor, was conducted at the Institute in order to inform students about Christian counseling. 

"During the presentation, the Institute's chief counselor said that its Christian credentials and values were openly discussed with potential clients," Olp wrote in a statement. "In answer to a hypothetical question, the counselor said that while the Institute would and does counsel individual gay persons on a variety of issues, it prefers to refer gay couples for relationship counseling to other counselors whose religious views would likely be a better fit."

A student complained to Cash's faculty adviser about this statement. 

Olp said the adviser "peremptorily ordered Cash to her office, interrogated him as to his own views on the subject, and when he said he was sympathetic to them, she ordered him to forthwith cease attending the Institute, and immediately informed the Institute that it no longer would be considered an appropriate location for a school counseling internship given 'ethical concerns' that had arisen." 

MSU also removed all the hours Cash had already earned at the Institute from his graduate record.

"Although Cash worked with the administration to find a different internship, the faculty adviser required him, as a condition of being re-accepted to a new internship, to prove to her that he 'had learned something from the experience at the Springfield Marriage and Family Institute,'" Olp stated.

"Later, the same adviser wrote a letter to department officials claiming that it appeared to her, despite a total lack of evidence, that she suspected that Cash had not recanted from his earlier-stated religious views," Olp added. 

The adviser recommended Cash be forced into "remediation," and the university accepted. In November 2014, the university expelled Cash from the counseling program, and his appeals fell on deaf ears.  

The university also ended a working relationship with the Springfield Marriage and Family Institute.