A former ethics professor filed suit against the University of Arizona after the university fired him for opposing his children’s school district policies on promoting gender ideology to students without parental knowledge or consent.
Daniel Grossenbach, a Christian father, expressed his views against policies that promote gender ideology at Catalina Foothills School District (CFSD) board meetings. Some of the district’s policies include permitting teachers to ask children about their sexual preferences and desires in surveys and allowing teachers to promote gender ideology to students without parental knowledge.
In front of the school board, Grossenbach on several occasions delivered two-to-three-minute speeches centered on protecting children and families from such polices. In response to the board’s policies, he founded the nonprofit organization SaveCFSD, which aims to notify parents on school policies and empowering parents to act.
In November 2023, Grossenbach was told that his part-time contract would not be renewed, with funding going instead to a full-time faculty member. However, no full-time professor was hired, his ethics course was dropped, and part-time roles equivalent to the former role appeared.
The university had only weeks earlier divulged a funding crisis of almost a quarter-billion-dollars. Suspicious, Grossenbach filed a freedom of information request.
“After a seven-month wait, I enlisted an attorney to compel the university to disclose the truth of what led to their decision,” Grossenbach wrote in an AZ Free News article. “The disclosure showed administrators panicked by two anonymous letters from community members complaining about statements I made at a public school board meeting. The letters alleged that I criticized the LGBTQIA+ community and asked the university to punish me for violating the university’s ‘values.’”
Liberty Counsel filed suit on his behalf, stating the university’s action caused irreparable damage to Grossenbach’s “professional career and reputation, ended his academic pursuit of a doctorate degree, decreased his earning potential, and reduced his income,” Liberty Counsel wrote in a press release. Grossenbach also lost a possible textbook publishing deal.
The legal firm, seeking a permanent injunction, is filing on the grounds of a Title VII violation, which prohibits discriminating based on religion against employees; the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment; and violations of an Arizona statute that prohibits wrongful denial of access to public records.
“Professors at public universities and colleges do not shed their constitutional rights to free speech and religious exercise when they work for a university,” Matt Staver, Liberty Counsel founder and chairman, said. “Professor Daniel Grossenbach engaged in constitutionally protected speech, religious expression, and religious exercise and was speaking on matters of public concern regarding his faith, morality, and the community. The University of Arizona cannot fire a professor for his protected speech. Viewpoint discrimination is unlawful and violates the First Amendment and religious discrimination violates Title VII.”
