Ex professor sues Oklahoma Christian school over 'homophobic' response after class presentation
A fired Oklahoma Christian University professor and a former adjunct professor have filed a lawsuit against the private Christian school and its chief legal counsel for a series of alleged "homophobic" actions stemming from a 2022 class presentation.
In a lawsuit filed in Oklahoma County District Court, Michael O'Keefe and Scott Hale said their reputations have been tarnished. They said actions and statements were made "wrongfully, intentionally and recklessly" by the Church of Christ-affiliated school and the university's chief legal counsel Stephen Eck.
The men are seeking actual and punitive damages.
They are suing the university for breach of contract, arguing that university leaders fired O'Keefe in March without giving him due process as a tenured professor, thus violating his employment agreement. As a graphic arts professor, O'Keefe had been on the staff of the university at 2501 E Memorial Road for 41 years — and granted tenure in 2001 — before he was terminated.
O'Keefe and Hale also are suing for libel, false light and intentional infliction of emotional distress. They cited the university's termination of O'Keefe for alleged "gross misconduct" and, in particular, an email that Eck sent to university staff after O'Keefe's termination.
O'Keefe and Hale allege that Eck's email, which also was sent to two news outlets, falsely portrayed Hale, who is gay, as "a lewd person with pedophiliac and exhibitionist tendencies who committed crimes of moral turpitude, including sexual misconduct." The email, according to the lawsuit, also falsely portrayed O'Keefe as "someone who threatens, intimidates and disregards the well-being of students."
The men said Eck's statements in the email were homophobic and were made to generate donor support and/or decrease LGBTQ+ enrollment and employment at the university.
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Eck could not be reached for comment and a phone call to the university's administrative office was not returned.
Kevin Jacobs, an attorney representing both men, said O'Keefe appealed his termination through the proper university channels but the appeal was denied. He said both O'Keefe and Hale have tried to work with the university to resolve the matter out of court but ultimately felt they had no recourse but to file suit.
"We have been extremely patient with the university and before we filed this petition, we sent it to the university and they asked for time to think about how to respond to it," Jacobs said Wednesday.
"The only thing I will say is that response has been disappointing and it in some ways, has further injured both professor O'Keefe and and Mr. Hale. The university is taking no responsibility for any type of wrongdoing in this so we felt like the only recourse that we could do, since they were obviously not willing to try to make it right, was to try to get the assistance of a court to help make it right."
Class presentation is key
Contrasting views about what did or did not happen during Hale's presentation in one of O'Keefe's classes is at the heart of the case.
Hale spoke at O'Keefe's senior level class titled “The Business of Branding Yourself” on or about March 1, according to the lawsuit. O'Keefe and Jacobs have said the presentation was about resilience and branding, and Hale also discussed overcoming obstacles and developing character. The lawsuit alleges that the university and Eck had been aware that Hale was gay.
In the lawsuit, O'Keefe said he was asked to meet with Eck and the university's chief academic officer on March 7 to discuss Hale's presentation, and it was at this time that the professor was told he was being terminated because Hale had been a guest speaker in his class.
In his email memo, Eck discussed details about what Hale allegedly said during his presentation and O'Keefe's alleged response to complaints about the presentation.
"The employment termination process was prompted by multiple complaints from eyewitnesses or others aware of the inappropriate and graphic language of a sexual nature, and stories shared in O'Keefe's class a couple of weeks ago, by a guest speaker O'Keefe invited and arranged to speak," Eck said in his memo. "Some of the speaker’s remarks included telling the class about his history of exposing his genitals to others." In his memo, the attorney also accused O'Keefe of intimidation, saying that O'Keefe attempted to "squelch" students' complaints about Hale's presentation and their desire to officially report the presentation to school leadership.
Jacobs this week said Eck's portrayal of the classroom presentation presented the talk in a false light. Jacobs said Hale had discussed attending a sleepover when he was 10 years old where he was forced into playing a game. The attorney said in the context of his story, Hale told the students about the shame that he felt for being put into that position "then for the university to twist that and say that he has a 'history' now ... Obviously, it's putting them (Hale and O'Keefe) in a false light in the public eye."
"These two men have suffered and their reputations have suffered," Jacobs said.
The university was blasted on social media for weeks in the aftermath of O'Keefe's termination after his wife shared information about his firing on Facebook. As more details became public knowledge about Eck's email and Hale's presentation, numerous people, some of them former and current Oklahoma Christian University students, criticized the school for what they generally described as bigotry against Hale because he is gay, and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Oklahoma Christian professor sues over school's 'homophobic' response
