The College Fix reports that “St. Philips College has agreed to rehire a Christian biology professor after he filed a religious discrimination charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission” and drew support from five conservative Texas Congressmen.
Professor Johnson Varkey said he was fired by the San Antonio-based college after he taught that X and Y chromosomes determine sex in humans. He filed an administrative complaint with the EEOC. When the EEOC receives an administrative complaint, it can either bring a lawsuit, or issue a “right-to-sue” letter, which allows people who file timely administrative complaints to bring a lawsuit of their own. Overwhelmingly, the EEOC issues right-to-sue letters, rather than bringing lawsuits of its own — especially when the victim is religious or a white man. (The EEOC has often itself been sued for discriminating against its own white employees, such as in Jurgens v. EEOC).
Varkey’s lawyers at First Liberty Institute revealed on February 20 that St. Philip’s College reinstated Varkey 13 months after he was fired for teaching basic precepts of human biology and reproduction.
“We are happy that the Alamo Community College District voluntarily reinstated Dr. Varkey,” they said. “He is excited by this outcome, and we are glad that [the College] did the right thing. Dr. Varkey looks forward to continuing to educate students.”
St. Phillips College is part of the Alamo Community College District. It admitted it had rehired Varkey but otherwise provided no comment. Neither side had discussed whether Varkey received anything else than reinstatement in the settlement (such as attorneys fees or lost wages).
Two months ago, five Texas Congressmen, such as Chip Roy and Dan Crenshaw, sent a letter to St. Philip’s College demanding answers, and saying that college officials “appear to be violating federal and state civil rights laws by rashly and wrongfully terminating employees based on unsubstantiated allegations.”
This is not the first controversy involving the college. It discharged Will Moravits, a political science professor and former cop, because he permitted debate on topics such as gender ideology and police brutality. After he brought a lawsuit, he got a $185,000 settlement.
Varkey’s firing came after four students in one of his classes left in an act of protest in November 2022, citing his teaching that X and Y chromosomes determine sex in humans.
Varkey’s letter of termination claimed the college had “‘received numerous complaints’ about his ‘religious preaching, discriminatory comments about homosexuals and transgender individuals, anti-abortion rhetoric, and misogynistic banter.’”
Varkey’s EEOC complaint rebutted allegations he “preached” in class: “While I never preached or proselytized in class, the accusation of religious preaching was clearly in connection with the fact that I serve as an associate pastor. I would mention this by way of introduction at the beginning of each semester, so my students were aware. The college assumed I was preaching rather than teaching due to negative, discriminatory stereotypes about Christians. This perception was inaccurate and discriminatory. If not for my beliefs about gender, sexuality, and human life, I would not have been fired.”
Varkey pointed out that his classroom teachings are rooted in basic precepts of biology and reproduction: “During my lecture on the human reproductive system, I stated that human sex is determined by chromosomes X and Y, and that reproduction must occur between a male and a female to continue the human species…Because no information is added or deleted in those 38 weeks, life starts when the zygote begins to divide, not when the baby is born. In the course of teaching Human Anatomy and Physiology, I made these statements in every class for 19 years, without any incident or complaint.”
Varkey recounted that in all his 20 years at St. Philip’s College, he had received excellent performance reviews and had no history of disciplinary infractions.
