OSU librarian slapped with “sexual harassment” charge over conservative books for freshmen

Ohio State University will press forward with frivolous investigation despite ADF letter

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Officials at the Ohio State University are investigating an OSU Mansfield librarian for “sexual harassment” after he recommended four conservative books for a freshman reading program. ADF has demanded that OSU cease its frivolous investigation, yet the university is pressing forward, claiming that it takes the charges “seriously.”

“Universities are one of the most hostile places for Christians and conservatives in America,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David French, who heads ADF’s Center for Academic Freedom. “It is shameful that OSU would investigate a Christian librarian for simply recommending books that are at odds with the prevailing politics of the university.”

Scott Savage, who serves as a reference librarian for the university, suggested four best-selling conservative books for freshman reading in his role as a member of OSU Mansfield’s First Year Reading Experience Committee. The four books he suggested were The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian, The Professors by David Horowitz, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis by Bat Ye’or, and It Takes a Family by Senator Rick Santorum. Savage made the recommendations after other committee members had suggested a series of books with a left-wing perspective, by authors such as Jimmy Carter and Maria Shriver.

Savage was put under “investigation” by OSU’s Office of Human Resources after three professors filed a complaint of discrimination and harassment against him, saying that the book suggestions made them feel “unsafe.” The complaint came after the OSU Mansfield faculty voted without dissent to file charges against Savage. The faculty later voted to allow the individual professors to file charges.

On March 28, ADF sent OSU officials a letter informing them of Savage’s constitutional rights. A copy of the letter can be read at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/OSUMansfieldletter.pdf.

The university so far has declined to stop the investigation, saying in its response that it takes “any allegation of sexual harassment seriously.”

“The OSU Mansfield faculty is attempting to label a librarian as a ‘sexual harasser’ because they disagree with his book suggestions,” said French. “It is astonishing that an entire faculty would vote to launch a sexual harassment investigation because a librarian offered book suggestions in a committee whose purpose was to solicit such suggestions.”

ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.

I have been in a very long conversation with authors about whether sexually inappropriate books should be moved out of the children's section of public libraries. In the context of that conversation, I made the following comments relevant to this Scott Savage story, and tell me if you agree:

Back in that cease and desist letter we see an exhibit, a letter from one professor Norman Jones. Jones wrote how the book Scott Savage recommended was “anti-gay” and “homophobic tripe” because the book contained the following quote: “the widely revered father of the ‘sexual revolution’ [Dr. Kinsey] has been irrefutably exposed as a full-fledged sexual psychopath who encouraged pedophilia.”

Do you see how this insidious, devious attack works? No? Scott Savage never said word one, nothing, that was “homophobic.” Yet it is ascribed to him as if he said it. That having been done, he is then attacked for having said it. But he never did! Look closely at that quote again. Do you see anything, anything at all about homosexuals? I see psychopaths and pedophiles but no homosexuals. The professor made it up! Worse, the professor makes the logical connection between pedophiles and homosexuals!! This is blatantly wrong!! But he does it, then he says Scott Savage does it, then he accuses Scott Savage of being “homophobic” and “anti-gay”!

Now I’m just one person. In all my experience I never heard of a homosexual pedophile. All the pedophiles I know in the news are heterosexual. Labeling homosexuals as pedophiles is not only factually wrong, but it is a common misconception about homosexuals that is used to attack them. And here, here we see a professor saying that a book about a “psychopathic pedophile” is homophobic. It’s the professor himself that connects the pedophilia to the homophobia. He’s the offender here. Yet he ascribed this to the librarian, then attacks the librarian as if the librarian said this! Frankly, this appears to me to be a latent attack on homosexuals by OSU Professor Norman Jones.

SafeLibraries.org - Are Children Safe in Public Libraries?

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