Closing arguments and jury deliberation are set for Tuesday in a religious discrimination lawsuit filed over three years ago against Emporia State University.
Final steps towards a verdict this week follow a week’s worth of testimony last week in the case of Dusti Howell v Emporia State. Howell, a former Information and Design Technology professor, filed suit against the university, current Dean of the Teachers College Joan (Jo-Ann) Brewer and former IDT department head Jim Persinger in 2022, saying Brewer and Persinger conspired to violate his civil rights by not letting him take part in certain holy day observances “as part of his Christian walk,” also accusing Brewer and Persinger of not handling matters in good faith about his religious practices while ESU allegedly began a plan to force Howell, a tenured professor, out in 2018 — before he was eligible for early retirement and before the university adopted the Kansas Board of Regents’ Framework for Workforce Management policy that led to the dismissals of over 30 faculty and staff.
Howell says the situation came to a head when he returned from celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles in 2020, was told all future religion-related absences needed two months for approval and was also disciplined for taking a leave of absence when he hadn’t.
Emporia State University has declined comment on the lawsuit, which is university policy. ESU had considered a written policy for religion-related absences in 2016 but did not take action.
Any local verdict follows the US Supreme Court’s action in Groff v Dejoy from 2023. The high court said businesses must demonstrate religion-related absences cause undue burdens on the employers.
Senior Judge Richard Walker has been presiding over the case since September after it initially started in front of Lyon County Chief Judge Jeff Larson and was later transferred to Senior Judge James Fleetwood in January 2023.
