Former Ponderosa High School assistant principal Corey McNellis says he was fired for objecting to play about Matthew Shepard’s murder, sues Douglas County

When a former assistant principal at Ponderosa Large College found out in 2020 that the school’s theater organization prepared to set on a perform about what transpired after Matthew Shepard, a gay faculty student, was murdered, he objected to the production.

Now, two a long time later on, Corey McNellis, who was also athletic director at the college, is suing Douglas County College District, alleging that the Parker school fired him in Oct 2020 due to the fact of his “Christian belief and since he expressed his sights, which are secured by the Initially Modification,” in accordance to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, on July 1.

McNellis suggests in the federal lawsuit that he located out about the production planned by Ponderosa’s theater enterprise on Oct. 2, 2020, when the school’s theater director emailed team about the perform – named “The Laramie Project” –  to enable them know the “nature of the participate in so that if we have college students who have an aggressively adverse response to our demonstrate choice that you can help us in helping learners understand.”

“This is a enjoy about perspectives, and we would not want any one in the college to feel we are generating a assertion versus just about anything other than despise and violence,” the director wrote in the email according to the lawsuit.

“The Laramie Project” is an “examination of the speedy reactions of Matt Shepard’s community to the murder and to the fundamental bigotry and hatred that enabled it,” in accordance to the Tectonic Theater Undertaking, whose workforce of writers and actors traveled to Wyoming right after the murder to job interview neighborhood citizens to develop the enjoy.

Shepard was beaten and tortured ahead of he was still left to die in Laramie in 1998. He was taken care of at Poudre Valley Clinic in Fort Collins ahead of he died. Authorities have stated he was targeted due to the fact he was homosexual and the assault drew worldwide media consideration.

McNellis’s lawsuit alleges that “The Laramie Project” “is a religiously billed play that covers distressing material” and that it incorporates interviews from Laramie people, like “Christian leaders, some of whom share unsavory views regarding Shepard’s murder, and cite their Christian faith as the reason for their views.”

Matt Joslyn, govt director of Tectonic Theater Task, claimed in a assertion that he could not remark on the lawsuit, but that a lot more than 200 several hours of interviews have been utilized to develop the participate in and that its world premiere was held in Denver.

“Yes, the perform addresses distressing materials: the brutal dislike crime perpetrated on an harmless particular person for the reason that of his sexual orientation,” Joslyn explained. “Its characters are actual people today from extensively diversified backgrounds with various perspectives. At Tectonic Theater Job we stand for radical empathy, considerate discourse, and the continued marketing campaign, together with the Matthew Shepard Basis, to erase hatred in our world.”

McNellis was fearful about “how the Christian religion arrives across in the perform,” said Spencer Kontnik, an attorney symbolizing McNellis.

When McNellis discovered out about the perform, he responded in an email by inquiring, “As a Father of a student below and also as an worker in the school, what is my recourse if I disagree with the output? Was this a heads up to see if anyone is amazing?”

An email trade followed between other staff users, which includes a record teacher who made available to give “a social scientific studies perspective” on the enjoy. McNellis responded and “offered to provide a Christian point of view,” according to the lawsuit.

“It absolutely in no way had just about anything to do with anti-LGBTQ,” McNellis instructed The Denver Write-up on Wednesday when requested to comment on the lawsuit. “And none of my opinions could be noticed as that.”

The lawsuit did not consist of copies or more particulars of the e-mail exchange but alleges the e-mail have been then sent to directors, which include the district’s human methods director and the school’s principal.