An Illinois college has been sued by a graduate student who received her master’s degree in May. The student claims she was disciplined for expressing her conservative and Christian views with students and teachers who believe differently.
After Maggie DeJong graduated magna cum laude from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2018, she enrolled in a master program for Art Therapy Counseling at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in May 2022.
Art therapy, a mental health profession that integrates the disciplines of art and psychotherapy, is a small profession with only a few thousand art therapy counselors.
For the first few years, she openly interacted with fellow students and teachers, sharing her Christian beliefs and conservative views. Even though her views were different from most of her classmates, they seemed to peacefully coexist.
That all changed a few months before DeJong was scheduled to receive her master’s degree. Without any warning or complaint from any professor or fellow student, she received three “no-contact” orders from school officials.
“I was alarmed when I had received three no-contact orders that prevented me from having direct or indirect communication with these three students,” DeJong said Friday during an appearance on “Fox & Friends First.” She and an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom Tyson Langhoffer spoke about the censorship she endured earlier this year..
“Essentially, they were restraining orders that applied to on and off-campus,” she declared.
ADF, representing DeJong, sued the university’s former chancellor Randall G. Pembrook, Equal Opportunity Director Jamie Ball and Program Director of the Art Therapy Counseling Graduate Program Megan Robb.
ADF explained how the school officials basically tried to silence DeJong after a few fellow graduate students complained her views and social media posts “harmed” them.
DeJong does not support the Black Lives Matter because of the organization’s call to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family,” according to arguments made in court documents. The suit included a link to a Black Lives Matter document titled What We Believe. She posted materials on her social media accounts critical of BLM.
Several of her professors and classmates expressed support for the BLM and joined calls to defund police, claiming law enforcement was systemically racist.
In February 2021, the art student wore a hat to class with the U.S. flag in black and white, with a single thin-blue-line stripe. She wore the Back the Blue hat to express her support for law enforcement, according to court documents.
“Defendant Robb noted during class that Ms. DeJong was wearing the hat and asked her to explain why she was wearing it,” her lawyers informed the court. “Ms. DeJong said that she was wearing the hat to show her support for law enforcement and explained her belief that defunding the police would hurt society.”
Rather than take off the hat, DeJong stood her ground even as fellow students argued the hat was a symbol of oppression and implied she was a racist for wearing it.
Months later, Professor Robb brought up during class how DeJong had earlier worn a Blue Lives Matter hat. DeJong’s classmates expressed how the hat was “unsafe,” comparing her wearing the hat to someone eating peanut butter near a person with a peanut allergy.
Student “S.W.” was one student who filed a complaint against DeJong. She allegedly exclaimed something along the lines of, “We all have to censor ourselves because we have to keep the peace. We have to do what is best for the general public.”
Robb allegedly added that DeJong was entitled to her viewpoint “unless it harms others.”
On February 10, 2022, Defendant Ball issued three no-contact orders against DeJong related to Student A.S., Student T.P. and Student S.W.
Each order prohibited DeJong from having “any contact” or even “indirect communication” with Student
A.S., Student T.P. or Student S.W. even though none of the students had previously requested her not to speak to them or otherwise communicate with them.
“This Order is not an indication of responsibility for a violation of University policy,” noted former chancellor Pembrook, “rather, it is intended to prevent interactions that could be perceived by either party as
unwelcome, retaliatory, intimidating, or harassing.”
DeJong was told that, “if at any time” DeJong “need[ed] to communicate” with the complainant, “you may do so only through me or a third party explicitly authorized by me.”
Lieutenant Adam Severit of the SIUE Police Department was copied on each of the three orders.
Her attorneys, corresponded with Pembrook February 23 demanding the University rescind the no-contact
orders, which happened February 28.
DeJong learned March 10 what the allegations against her were.
Her lawsuit against the college officials was filed in the Southern District of Illinois District Court May 31.
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