Ohio Professor Gets $400K In Lawsuit Over Student's Preferred Pronouns

PORTSMOUTH, OH — A professor at Shawnee State University will receive $400,000 in a settlement after the university punished him because he declined to use a transgender student’s preferred titles and pronouns.

Philosophy professor Nicholas Meriwether in 2018 referred to students as "Mr." or "Ms." and said it helped students view their academics as a "serious, weighty endeavor." When a student told him after class that she used feminine titles and pronouns, Meriwether declined and offered to use the student's name instead of titles or pronouns.

"This was the first time that Meriwether learned that (the student) identified as a woman," court documents said. "So Meriwether paused before responding because his sincerely held religious beliefs prevented him from communicating messages about gender identity that he believes are false."

Meriwether, who has worked at the university for more than 20 years and considers himself both a philosopher and a Christian, said he believes God created humans as either male or female, and that people cannot change their sex.

In a YouTube video, Meriwether said he calls students "sir" or "ma'am," or by a title such as "Mr." or Ms." followed by their last name.

"The formality fosters an atmosphere of seriousness, mutual respect and courtesy," he said. "And I've always referred to students based on their biological sex. After all, that is who they are."

The student became aggressive, Meriwether said, physically circling him, getting in his face, using expletives, and even threatening to get him fired.

The student filed a complaint with the university, which launched a formal investigation.

The acting dean reached a compromise with Meriwether and said he could continue using pronouns to address most students in class, but would refer to the female student using only her name.

But the university rejected that compromise, Meriwether said, and instead forced him to speak contrary to his religious convictions and philosophical beliefs. The university also formally charged him, accusing him of creating a hostile environment and discriminating against the student. The university later placed a written warning in his personnel file that threatened “further corrective actions” if he failed to use students' preferred pronouns that reflect their gender identity.

The Alliance Defending Freedom sued on Meriwether's behalf, accusing the university of violating his free speech and due process rights, along with his rights under the Ohio Constitution and his contract with the university. The organization is a conservative Christian nonprofit based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

A federal appeals court ruled last year that the university violated the professor's rights. On Thursday, his attorneys said they'd reached a settlement with the university, in which Shawnee State would pay $400,000 in damages and his attorneys' fees. The university will also rescind its written warning against Meriwether.

Shawnee State told The Columbus Dispatch in a statement it the settlement was an "economic decision."

"Though we have decided to settle, we adamantly deny that anyone at Shawnee State deprived Dr. Meriwether of his free speech rights or his rights to freely exercise his religion. We continue to stand behind a student’s right to a discrimination-free learning environment as well as the rights of faculty, visitors, students and employees to freely express their ideas and beliefs," the university said.

Shawnee said it believed the case was being used to "advance divisive social and political agendas at a cost to the university and its students."

Travis Barham, senior counsel of the nonprofit, said in a statement the case forced them to "defend what used to be a common belief — that nobody should be forced to contradict their core beliefs just to keep their job,”

“Dr. Meriwether went out of his way to accommodate his students and treat them all with dignity and respect, yet his university punished him because he wouldn’t endorse an ideology that he believes is false," Barham said.

Tyson Langhofer, the director of the organization's Center for Academic Freedom, said public universities should welcome intellectual and ideological diversity, where students and professors can engage in meaningful discussions "without compromising their core beliefs."

“Dr. Meriwether rightly defended his freedom to speak and stay silent, and not conform to the university’s demand for uniformity of thought," Langhofer said. "We commend the university for ultimately agreeing to do the right thing, in keeping with its reason for existence as a marketplace of ideas."