Personal Faith or Professional Compassion? - Ryan John

Last year at Eastern Michigan University (EMU), a school counselor named Julea Ward was expelled from her counseling duties after refusing to counsel a homosexual student on his relationship difficulties.

Ward refused to counsel the student on the basis of religious conviction and recommended the student see another counselor. Following her expulsion from the university, she filed a federal lawsuit against EMU which claimed her First Amendment right to freedom of religion had been violated. In late July, a judge ruled in favor of EMU’s claim that its school counseling curriculum adhered to the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics which mandates “professional neutrality and a strict non-discrimination policy.”

In Georgia, former Augusta State University (ASU) student Jennifer Keeton, a student in the school counselor masters program, filed a federal lawsuit against ASU, claiming staff had required her to accept homosexuality or be expelled from the school’s masters program. Keeton was assigned remediation assignments from faculty that were designed to increase her sensitivity toward the gay community.

Suspicion arose based on her class writings and discussions concerning homosexual topics. Failure to complete these required tasks would lead to Keeton’s dismissal from the graduate program. After first agreeing to it, she reneged and stated the University’s assignments were aimed at making her accept such homosexuality in contradiction to her religious beliefs. Keeton lost her legal battle recently when U.S. District Judge Randal Hall dismissed her case.

I applaud ASU’s proactive approach in assigning Keeton tasks that would test her flexibility with the gay and lesbian community after hearing her respond negatively on such issues in her class discussions and writings. Perhaps ASU and other school counseling programs could “nip it in the bud” even earlier on the application for admission into the school counselors graduate program.

I atttended a conservative Catholic college. I interviewed our director of counseling for a class I was taking. A self-confessed liberal, he told me he almost hadn’t gotten the job because he exposed some “liberal tendencies” when faced with a question about how he would handle a pregnant student.

I wonder how Ward was even hired in the first place at a gay-friendly institution like EMU. I suppose I can see how a job applicant wouldn’t be familiar with the campus culture prior to experiencing it first-hand, even though such familiarity should be an integral piece of the interview preparation process. But, as EMU values its gay-friendly atmosphere, as my institution values its Catholic beliefs, they should have raised hypothetical questions during the interview process to gauge where Ward stood on these important issues. Kudos to my school for hiring our director of counseling forty years ago, despite his honest expression of some fundamental religious differences.

As a graduate student in a school counseling program myself, I believe that remaining non-biased, non-judgmental, and client-centered should take precedence. The only book a counselor should be devoted to is the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics.