PINEVILLE – A lawsuit filed by four Louisiana College professors has been set for trial.
By Karen L. Willoughby
Managing Editor
PINEVILLE – A lawsuit filed by four Louisiana College professors has been set for trial.
Ninth Judicial District Judge Rae Swent ruled in
late June that a lawsuit alleging loss of academic freedom and
emotional distress filed by two current and two former LC professors
can go to trial.
“The defendants had filed a number of exceptions and
the court either denied them or referred them to the merits – said they
would be addressed at the time of trial,” said Vic Sooter, attorney for
LC professors Carlton Winbery (retired since December 2004), Fred
Downing (recently resigned to be chairman of the philosophy and
religion department at Valdosta State University in Georgia), James
Heath and Connie Douglas.
The legal action names Louisiana College, Leon
Hyatt, Joe Aguillard, Allan Shoemaker, Amy Russell and Louisiana
Inerrancy Fellowship as defendants. It alleges breach of contract,
defamation, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional
infliction of emotional distress, breach of academic freedom, and
violation of bylaws and the faculty handbook in effect at the time of
the suit, Sooter said.
“We’re very pleased with the decision of the judge
and are anxious to get on with the discovery in the case,” the
plaintiff’s attorney said, referring to depositions and other aspects
of preparing a case for trial.
This is a lawsuit with a history, the judge
indicated. The four professors first filed suit for defamation in 1995.
The case was settled in 1997. Under Louisiana law the current legal
action is “amended” to the first because this suit alleges the contract
was broken which was agreed to in the settlement of the first suit.
The contract was designed to protect the four
professors from retaliation and the withholding of promotion to
departmental chairmanships; it also guaranteed them academic freedom,
according to previously published reports.
“We are confident that as the case moves forward, we
are both excited and anxious for the truth to be made public,” LC
President Joe Aguillard said in an email. “The plaintiffs have stated
that the heart of this law suit is over Academic Freedom.
“We affirm that in a Christian institution, Academic
Freedom must be balanced with academic responsibility – is limited by
the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ, by the authoritative nature of the
Scriptures, and by the distinct purpose for which the school exists,”
he continued. “We stand firmly – unequivocally – upon that truth and
are eager to defend it.”
Professor Winbery contends there is much more to the suit than just academic freedom.
“The attack of us started in 1995; that’s when they
circulated a packet of information that wasn’t true,” Winbery said. “In
Leon Hyatt’s cover letter on that packet, he said he didn’t know if the
information was or was not true.” Winebery continued, “That was an
admission of guilt, as far as the judge was concerned, because Leon
Hyatt deliberately published letters he didn’t know to be true.”
As a result of the judge’s ruling, Hyatt, the
Louisiana Conservative Resurgency – forerunner of the Louisiana
Inerrancy Fellowship, and others paid $40,000 to the plaintiffs. Hyatt
was also instructed to issue a written apology. Additionally, both
sides signed off on a contract designed to ensure the peace.
“They came back about three years ago and circulated
another packet of letters,” alleged Winbery. “And in the settlement of
the lawsuit, they said they would not do that.”
“We tried over a period of months to get them to
retract their statements – 13 hours of meetings on three separate
occasions,” Winbery said. “We did everything we could think of,
including contacting pastors to see if we could speak in their churches
to clear up any confusion, but no one [we contacted] would agree to
that.”
“At its core, the strife at the college is political
and part of the conservative resurgence in process since the late
1970’s,” Winbery said. He added, “I have never been moderate in my
life. I’ve been right in the center of the Baptist faith.”
Aguillard disagrees with Winbery on the nature of
the contention. “At its core is the different positions held on the
authority of the Holy Scripture,” Aguillard said.
He continued, “Louisiana College is solidly planted
on the fact that the scriptures are ‘truth without any mixture of
error.’ Our Mission reflects that position on scripture as well as the
fact that Louisiana College is a Baptist college and we are accountable
to Jesus Christ and our longstanding heritage with the Baptist churches
of Louisiana.”
While the suit has been cleared to go to trial, a court date has yet to be set.