Thursday, July 04, 2013

University Tells Student to Remove Cross Necklace


Would they have told a Jewish student to remove a yarmulke? Would a Muslim girl have been expected to remove her head scarf? Would that gay kid have been told to remove a rainbow pin on his shirt collar? No, no, and no. That makes the matter crystal clear.

A Sonoma State University student was ordered to remove a cross necklace by a supervisor who thought other students might find it offensive, in a case that prompted even one campus official to speculate that “political correctness got out of hand.”

Audrey Jarvis, 19, a liberal arts major at the northern California university, said she had no choice but to seek a “religious accommodation” in order to wear the cross. Her lawyer said she deserves an apology, and the school seems ready to oblige.

Jarvis was working for the university’s Associated Students Productions at a June 27 student orientation fair for incoming freshmen when her supervisor told her to remove the two-inch-long cross necklace, according to Sasser.

Sasser said the supervisor told her that the chancellor had a policy against wearing religious items and further explained “that she could not wear her cross necklace because it might offend others, it might make incoming students feel unwelcome, or it might cause incoming students to feel that ASP was not an organization they should join.”

Jarvis said she is a devout Catholic and she wears the cross as a symbol of her faith in Christ.

“I was offended because I believe as a Christian woman it is my prerogative to display my faith any way I like so long as it is not harming anyone else,” she said. “I was very hurt and felt as if the university’s mission statement – which includes tolerance and inclusivity to all – was violated.”

Source

The university has apologized but will not disclose what they said to their intolerant employee


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lets hope even the hard core leftists are starting to see how far we have fallen.

I hope this kid sues the pants off the college!

"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."

-Thomas Paine

Anonymous said...

With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied – chains us all, irrevocably!

Malcolm Smith said...

One must wonder where this strange orthodoxy came from - the one that says wearing a sign of your own private faith might cause others to take offense, or feel unwelcome. I wonder if the same standard applies to political stickers.

A. Levy said...

Malcolm, it comes from a highly misguided sense of tolerance on the part of society. And to the Left, tolerance is just another word for weakness.

Anonymous said...

I have never heard anything as idiotic as what her supervisor told her. If people don't want to.risk being offended, the last place they should go is college where you are continually exposed to new people and new ideas.

Anonymous said...

I suppose it doesn't take much education to become a supervisor at this college. Especially any constitutional or labor law knowledge.

Anonymous said...

if it offends someone, isn't it their problem and not the cross wearer's problem? They have issues if they cannot stand to see a cross.