LOS ANGELES
A community college student has filed a lawsuit claiming a public speaking professor berated him and refused to let him finish a speech opposing same-sex marriage.
In the suit filed last week in a Los Angeles federal court, student Jonathan Lopez said that, midway through his speech when he recited a dictionary definition of marriage and recited a pair of Bible verses, professor John Matteson cut him off, called him a “fascist bastard” and would not allow him to finish.
The suit says Matteson told students they could leave if they were offended, and, when no one left, he dismissed the class.
A student evaluation form included with the lawsuit lacks a score for Lopez’s speech and reads “ask God what your grade is.”
Lopez and his attorneys are seeking financial damages and also seek to strike down a code at Los Angeles City College forbidding students from making statements deemed “offensive.”
