Higher Education

OU probes claim of religious discrimination after student given zero

December 1, 2025

Ray Carter

A University of Oklahoma instructor, who reportedly identifies as transgender, has been placed on leave amid an investigation into whether he discriminated against a student who cited Christian beliefs to reject the claim that there are more than two genders.

OU officials issued a statement over the weekend as the incident gained national attention.

“The University of Oklahoma takes seriously concerns involving First Amendment rights, certainly including religious freedoms,” the OU statement declared.

The university statement said the incident is receiving a “full review” involving “regular communication” with the affected student. The OU statement said a formal grade-appeals process is underway and has “resulted in steps to ensure no academic harm to the student from the graded assignments.”

An investigation of the student’s claim of illegal discrimination based on religious beliefs is also underway.

“OU has a clear process for reviewing such claims and it has been activated,” the OU statement continued. “The graduate student instructor has been placed on administrative leave pending the finalization of this process. To ensure fairness in the process, a full-time professor is serving as the course instructor for the remainder of the semester.

“OU remains firmly committed to fairness, respect and protecting every student’s right to express sincerely held religious beliefs,” the statement concluded.

As first reported by The Oklahoman, University of Oklahoma junior Samantha Fulnecky was given a zero for an essay that discussed her views on gender.

Students were asked to respond to an assigned article that claimed gender-atypical kids experience more teasing, leading to negative mental health outcomes.

The guidelines for the assignment asked students to write a 650-word “reaction paper” that provided a “thoughtful discussion of some aspect of the article.” Among the “possible approaches” suggested was to explain why a student thought the subject of the article was, or was not, worthy of study or to explain how the study applied to a student’s own experiences.

The assignment was not a research paper requiring citation of outside sources.

In her essay, Fulnecky wrote, “It is frustrating to me when I read articles like this and discussion posts from my classmates of so many people trying to conform to the same mundane opinion, so they do not step on people’s toes. I think that is a cowardly and insincere way to live. It is important to use the freedom of speech we have been given in this country, and I personally believe that eliminating gender in our society would be detrimental, as it pulls us farther from God’s original plan for humans. It is perfectly normal for kids to follow gender ‘stereotypes’ because that is how God made us. The reason so many girls want to feel womanly and care for others in a motherly way is not because they feel pressured to fit into social norms. It is because God created and chose them to reflect His beauty and His compassion in that way.”

Fulnecky also stated, “I strongly disagree with the idea from the article that encouraging acceptance of diverse gender expressions could improve students’ confidence. Society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic and severely harms American youth. I do not want kids to be teased or bullied in school. However, pushing the lie that everyone has their own truth and everyone can do whatever they want and be whoever they want is not biblical whatsoever. The Bible says that our lives are not our own but that our lives and bodies belong to the Lord for His glory.”

Fulnecky was given a zero for the assignment.

Although The Oklahoman did not identify the instructor by name or provide any information on his background, multiple sources on social media have since identified the instructor as Mel Curth, who uses “she/they” pronouns. Multiple screenshots posted on social media indicate that Curth was previously given the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award by the OU Department of Psychology.

Curth responded to Fulnecky’s essay, claiming it “contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive.”

Curth claimed that “this isn’t a vague narrative of ‘society pushes lies,’ but instead the result of countless years developing psychological and scientific evidence for these claims and directly interacting with the communities involved. You may personally disagree with this, but that doesn’t change the fact that every major psychological, medical, pediatric, and psychiatric association in the United States acknowledges that, biologically and psychologically, sex and gender is neither binary nor fixed.”

The OU chapter of Turning Point USA issued a statement, declaring, “We at Turning Point OU stand with Samantha. We should not be letting mentally ill professors around students.

“Clearly this professor lacks the intellectual maturity to set her own bias aside and take grading seriously,” the Turning Point statement continued. “Professors like this are the very reason conservatives can’t voice their beliefs in the classroom.”

Several state officials have also spoken out on the controversy, including Gov. Kevin Stitt.

“The 1st Amendment is foundational to our freedom & inseparable from a well rounded education,” Stitt wrote in a post on X. “The situation at OU is deeply concerning. I’m calling on the OU regents to review the results of the investigation & ensure other students aren’t unfairly penalized for their beliefs.”

State Rep. Gabe Woolley, R-Broken Arrow, similarly wrote, “This individual is a man presenting himself as a woman. I don’t know what he has gone through that led him down this path, and my heart genuinely breaks for him. But personal trauma and personal decisions do not grant anyone the authority to misuse their position or to demand that others affirm arguments that are completely unscientific.

“This person is supposed to be a psychology professor—someone trained in and entrusted with understanding human behavior,” Woolley continued. “Yet he is ignoring foundational principles of human psychology and biology: that men and women are two distinct sexes created in a purposeful, binary design according to God’s order.”

Woolley said Curth “should not be teaching in higher education—period.”

State Sen. Dusty Deevers, an Elgin Republican who is also a pastor, wrote, “A transgender professor at OU, a taxpayer-funded university, gave Samantha Fulnecky a 0/25 not for bad writing, but because her biblical view of gender ‘offended’ the professor. At a public university, this raises serious First Amendment concerns and looks a lot like unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination by a state actor.”

Deevers noted that the graded assignment “invited a personal reaction” and “did not forbid religious reasoning.”

“If a conservative professor gave a Muslim or transgender student a zero for expressing their convictions, the university would treat it as a civil-rights crisis,” Deevers wrote. “The standard must be the same when the student is a Christian. Public universities cannot punish protected speech or religious expression simply because a professor dislikes the viewpoint.”

Deevers called on OU officials to correct Fulnecky’s grade based on neutral academic criteria, reaffirm that Fulnecky will not be penalized for sincerely held religious or moral beliefs, and ensure professors cannot override assignment guidelines to punish dissent.