Jay Matthews and Jacqueline Mahaffey, petitioners in Fresno City College’s case against health instructor Brad Lopez, said they were pleased with the decision by college authorities to reprimand the instructor.

“I think it is a great way to treat it. It gives him the opportunity to change what he is teaching and the way he’s teaching it without just firing him on the spot,” said Mahaffey.

“I am happy because they’ve done something, but it doesn’t make any sense. I think it’s fair, but I don’t think it is right,” said Matthews about the college’s decision.

A recent article in the Chronicles of Higher Education stated that FCC officials notified Lopez that they planned to put a letter of reprimand in his file and would fire him if he continued to engage in “Bible-based instruction or made disparaging remarks about homosexuals in the future,” citing Lopez’s attorney, Charles Magill as the source of the story.

“To say you need to now stop and there’s no apology . . . he [Lopez] has no educational process as to why what he is doing is wrong. He still believes that what he is doing is right. So how does that change anything? He still believes that what he’s doing is right and he still wants to appeal. They [FCC] haven’t taken any action to show him or to teach him why what he is doing is wrong,” Matthews added.

Matthews and Mahaffey, questioned the effectiveness of the college’s action. “He [Lopez] doesn’t understand that it [his actions] is a violation of the students’ rights. He doesn’t understand that it is victimizing people. He doesn’t understand that it is hurting people and that it is not right,” Matthews said. “They [FCC authorities] are not making any effort to teach him that.”

Mahaffey said she is hopeful Lopez sees this reprimand as an opportunity to make amends. “But if decides not to, if he truly does feel that he was not in the wrong, then he can go ahead and do it again; hopefully as it [the reprimand letter] said, then he won’t be here anymore.”

Lopez and his lawyer continue to state that he has done nothing wrong. Magill told the Rampage that he and Lopez had written a response letter to American Federation of Teachers representatives on the FCC campus.

This case started in Nov. 2009 when three students, including Matthews and Mahaffey filed a grievance against Lopez, claiming that he was teaching his personal beliefs and religion as facts and making disparaging remarks against homosexuals in his health classes. The students insisted that Lopez was violating their rights to a safe learning environment.

A letter dated March 8 and signed by Vice President of Student Services, Christopher Villa, showed the college found in favor of the students and stated that Lopez “engaged in conduct that could result in the creation of a hostile learning environment by unreasonably interfering with students’ learning by making insulting comments directed at homosexuals.”

Matthews and Mahaffey said that Lopez has not changed the content of his courses and persists in teaching the same material that the March 8 letter had criticized. “Up until about two weeks ago, just before spring break, he was still continuing to assign Bible study and stuff. He was telling kids to go to the library and study the bible because there are answers in there that they need to come back with and as a homework assignment,” said Matthews.

FCC president, Cynthia Azari, noted in an email interview that the college “will monitor the class [Lopez’s]” and that students with concerns should file a complaint with the Dean. She maintained that her “responsibility is to ensure that we are taking appropriate action and providing a suitable learning environment” for all students.

Matthews also expressed frustration at the way the college has handled this process. He said, “I don’t know what to think because the school doesn’t involve us in the process. So I don’t know. I don’t know what this means as far as what’s going on with him [Lopez]. They haven’t said anything to us. I had to find out via a news group. A newscaster knew before I knew.”

Matthews said he wants the college to seize the opportunity presented by the Lopez case to educate all on the campus about diversity. “I want to see a culturally competent diversity workshop on campus. I want people to be aware that we are culturally diverse and that to say things like that is wrong.”

He said Lopez should also learn from this experience. “I want him [Lopez] to be educated as to why that is wrong. I want him at the end of the day to know that what he did was not right and to not want to do it again and that to bring that kind of view into the classroom is not right.”