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Professor says he was discriminately fired for teaching sex was determined by chromosomes X and Y

A biology professor filed a religious discrimination charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Monday against a Texas community college after administrators allegedly fired him for teaching students sex was determined by X and Y chromosomes. 

St. Philip's College in San Antonio, Texas allegedly fired biology professor Dr. Johnson Varkey in January for teaching his students that sex was determined by X and Y chromosomes and that reproduction must occur between a male and a female to continue the human species. Despite the fact that Varkey taught from school-approved and science-based curriculum, St. Philip's College claims his teaching was religious.

Dr. Varkey is a devout Christian, but claims he never discussed his personal beliefs with students.  (Courtesy of First Liberty Institute)

"I also explained that when a sperm (which has 23 chromosomes) joins with an egg (which also has 23 chromosomes), a zygote (which has 46 chromosomes) is formed, and it begins to divide, and after 38 weeks a baby is born," Varkey wrote in the charge to the EEOC. "Because no information is added or deleted in those 38 weeks, life starts when the zygote begins to divide, not when the baby is born."

The college  failed to respond to a demand letter sent by the professor's lawyers asking he be reinstated for what they believe to be wrongful termination, according to a copy of the charge obtained by Fox News Digital.

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In his notice of termination letter, St. Philip’s College said the complaint against him contained several reports of "religious preaching, discriminatory comments about homosexuals and transgender individuals, anti-abortion rhetoric, and misogynistic banter." The college claim he violated "the highest standards of academic honesty and integrity," but provided no explanation or reasoning for its accusation.

First Liberty Institute (FLI), a law firm that defends the religious liberty of Americans, sent a letter to the community college on behalf Dr. Varkey in June, asking that he be reinstated in his role and that St. Philip's College admit his termination "was not for cause but in fact violated federal and state law." 

Dr. Varkey had been teaching his students that sex was determined by X and Y chromosomes for 20 years.  (BSIP/UIG Via Getty Images)

FLI said the college is participating in unlawful religious discrimination in employment under the First Amendment and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguing Varkey "believes that he is obligated as a Christian and as a professor to teach accurate, true concepts that comport with his many years of research and study in the field of human biology."

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Varkey's lawyers argue his teachings are supported by his education and experience in the field of biology, as well as his religious beliefs, but added that "throughout his employment, he never discussed with any student his personal views—religious or otherwise—on human gender or sexuality," but argued that his faith and his as integrity as an academic, forbid him from teaching or affirming statements that he believes to be false. 

"The actions of St. Philip’s College also have a disparate impact on religious employees," Varkey wrote in his charge with the EEOC. "The pattern and practice of terminating professors because of in-class statements that reflect their beliefs has a discriminatory effect on religious professors like myself."

Dr. Varkey said his firing will have a disparate impact on all religious professors.  (iStock)

"It saddens me that we have come to the place where, in an institution of higher learning, the feelings and opinions of the students are allowed to usurp the facts of science," Dr. Varkey told Fox News Digital. "The law protects Americans like me from being punished by their employers for holding or expressing their religious beliefs. St. Philip’s College is sending a message that the facts of science don’t matter and that religious people are not welcome and need not apply."

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As an adjunct professor, Varkey taught the same principles he was fired for this year in his Human Anatomy and Physiology to more than 1,500 students during the two decades he taught at St. Philip’s College, according to First Liberty. On November 28, 2022, four of Varkey's students walked out of his class when he stated that sex was determined by X and Y chromosomes, just as he always had during his 19 years teaching at the college. 

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"No college professor should be fired for teaching factual concepts that a handful of students don’t want to hear," Keisha Russel, Counsel for FLI and the lead attorney on Dr. Varkey’s case told Fox News Digital in a statement. "When public universities silence their own professors from teaching true concepts to students, education has been turned on its head."

Alamo Colleges District, which includes St. Philip’s College, told Fox News Digital it does not comment on personnel issues. 

For more Culture, Media, Education, Opinion, and channel coverage, visit foxnews.com/media

Kendall Tietz is a Production Assistant with Fox News Digital. 

The quality of American teaching has declined, study says

The quality of classroom teaching plunged during the pandemic, contributing to the standstill in academic recovery for students across the country, according to a report released Wednesday.

The study, by the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a nonpartisan research and policy organization, said participating school districts found it “almost impossible” to implement their recovery plans, citing staffing shortages and obstacles to teacher training. Both took a toll on instructional practices.

“Everybody knows that learning fell back during the pandemic, but what this study is showing is that, at least in these districts, teaching also has fallen back,” said Robin Lake, director of the education center, based at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.

The report, part of a three-year study of how five medium or large districts — one of them a public charter school network — addressed lost learning time during the pandemic, is based on lengthy interviews with about 30 district leaders in spring 2023.

Lake said the findings are not intended to blame teachers, but to help explain dismal recent test scores.

In June, test scores for 13-year-olds in math — on the well-regarded National Assessment of Educational Progress — showed the single largest drop (nine points) in 50 years. Reading scores dropped by four points, to the lowest level recorded since 2004.

More recently, scores on NWEA exams for 6.7 million students in third grade through eighth grade also showed a stubborn gap in achievement levels between students in 2022-23 and their pre-pandemic peers.

The 2022-23 school year opened the first window in three years into the day-to-day happenings of classrooms, the report said. What administrators discovered was “unexpected and alarming.”

“Teachers and their teaching practices had suffered significantly” following years of disrupted work conditions, student behavior challenges and high needs, the 15-page paper said.

While the report looks at only five school systems, Lake said its findings fall in line with a nationally representative survey that is part of a larger project, called the American School District Panel, that it created several years ago with the Rand Corporation, a nonprofit think tank.

Their report details recovery shortfalls.

One school leader that invested heavily in tutoring relied on vendors that supplied tutors of uneven quality. Another said tutoring cost $500,000 and had little success. “That’s a lot of money. And nothing to show for it?” the leader was quoted as saying.

Some school systems used federal relief money for bonuses that would help retain teachers, amid a national shortage. But the strategy often failed, the report said: “Teachers continued to leave... often in the middle of the year.”

In the classroom, initial plans in some districts called for an “accelerated” learning approach — combining grade-level instruction with individual student support to fill in learning gaps. But the model required “more training than systems were willing to provide or teachers were willing to adopt,” the report said.

District administrators said teachers fell back on practices that did not work, including placing students in groups without direct instruction, unnecessarily relying on screens, and using below-grade-level content, according to the analysis.

One district leader who had just visited a string of schools said there was a lot of “just getting through the day,” the report said.

The difficulties schools faced included a shortage of substitute teachers that left educators unable to pursue training opportunities. Districts also struggled to find high-quality providers of teacher training.

Meanwhile, teachers were grappling with elevated levels of poor student behavior and, in one district, greater community violence that led to more absenteeism among students and staff, which “hampered morale” and “derailed learning.”

School district leaders reported “a change in teachers’ capacity to take on more work — they knew their teachers were ‘exhausted,’ ” the report said.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement that “teachers have been giving their all to help kids recover and thrive, even as the pervasive effects of the pandemic mean the ground is shifting beneath them ... . What we must do now is focus like a laser on deploying proven strategies and solutions.”

Participating districts were kept anonymous to encourage candor. They are located in urban and suburban areas and predominantly serve students of color.