A professor told the Daily Caller News Foundation that he was fired and banned from a small college in Texas because of complaints from students and colleagues regarding his conservative beliefs.
St. Philip’s College (SPC), located in San Antonio, Texas, declined to renew political science professor Will Moravits’ contract on March 27 after a Title IX investigation was launched in February regarding a student complaint that he made disparaging comments about the LGBTQ community during class, according to a documents obtained by the DCNF. Moravits, who was scheduled to teach courses through the 2024 spring semester but has since been banned from campus, denied that he made any such comments, instead alleging that his termination was due to facilitating lectures on topics that the student found offensive.
“They made it very clear early on that I was not going to be reinstated under any circumstances,” Moravits told the DCNF. “That was not an option.”
A student alleged that Moravits made multiple statements during an Introduction to Political Sciences class including that the “LGBTQIA+ community is riddled with pedophilia,” “the ‘p’ in LGBTQIA+ stands for pedophilia” and that “gay pride activists organize parades with 12-year-olds jerking off in them,” according to the notice of complaint sent to Moravits on Feb. 13 and provided to the DCNF. The complainant also alleged that Moravits, who is a former police officer, argued that police brutality is needed and that he “instigates discussion between students, especially those who agree with him” during classroom discussions on controversial topics that are “irrelevant to the class.”
Moravits was notified of his suspension on Feb. 9 before being fully informed of the complaint against him on Feb. 13, according to the obtained documents. He was not permitted on campus nor to have contact with individuals, including students, during the investigation, which he was informed on April 21 was closed — nearly a month after the school decided not to renew his contract on March 27.
Moravits, however, denies he made the alleged comments.
“The student’s frivolous complaint and Alamo’s punitive actions in response to it clearly targeted Dr. Moravits’ protected speech as a teacher in the classroom,” a legal letter sent to the college by attorney Michael Allen and obtained by the DCNF reads. “The student complaint arose in POSI 2304, Introduction to Political Science. In that class, Dr. Moravits did nothing more than ask students to engage all sides of controversial issues, such as police brutality and gender ideology. Many of his engagements with students in class discussion came in direct response to their questions.”
Moreover, three students in the course signed affidavits, obtained by the DCNF, that state they did not hear Moravits make the alleged statements. Moravits has also received several “excellent” teaching evaluations and received good reviews from students, according to the legal letter.
“I believe that if such unusual thing were said in GOVT 2304 that they would stand out in my mind, and I would have remembered them,” one student, who was also interviewed during the investigation, wrote. “If these things were said about Dr. Moravits, I do not know why any student would make these accusations, and if such accusations were made, I know them to be false as a direct participant in the class.”
Another student, who said they were African-American, confirmed in the affidavit that they “never felt uncomfortable,” “demeaned” or “offended” in the class, nor does the student recall other classmates being “uncomfortable.”
“Dr. Moravits always went out of his way to discuss with the class how different people viewed controversial issues, so that the class heard all sides of an issue. He then left it up to us to make up our own minds. Dr. Moravits himself would not take sides, and he would correct students if they misunderstood him. In my experience of class, which I thought was a very good class, Dr. Moravits was always fair and respectful to all students and showed respect for students’ ideas and opinions,” the student wrote. “This is exactly what I went to school for, to learn about these kinds of things.”
The third affidavit was not immediately provided to the DCNF.
Dr. Will Moravits is a former police officer and author of The Blue Divide.
Read The Article At The Daily Caller.
