A Fresno City College health instructor has been accused of making anti-homosexual remarks in the classroom and teaching personal views as facts.

Dr. Bradley Lopez, a health instructor at FCC for 18 years, officially received two student grievances at the end of November 2009, which cited offensive content in lectures and offensive comments made to students.

One Feb. 8, the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to President Cynthia Azari of Fresno City College, accusing Lopez of presenting inaccurate facts and “highly discriminatory” views in his class that created a “hostile environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students, among others.”

During a Feb. 18 press conference in front of the Health Sciences building, Lopez defended himself, stating there was no truth to the harassment charges.

“Everything I teach is within the scope of Health Science 1 on this campus,” Lopez told the press.

Lopez also emphasized that material in his class reinforces critical thinking, a point that his attorney, Charles Magill of Fresno, said was an important part of all college curricula. Magill spoke at the press conference alongside Lopez.

“His responsibility is to teach his students about the facts, whether it’s politically correct or not,” Magill said.

In response to reporters’ questions, Magill also said that the accusations being made against Lopez “are fruitless and without support.”

No student came to Lopez directly to question his class materials, Magill told reporters. “That is the most logical step that should be taken before it’s made into a political statement like it has been made by the ACLU,” he said.

In a Feb. 17 phone interview with The Rampage, one day before the press conference,  Magill criticized both the ACLU and its letter. “It isn’t truly an academic complaint because they [the ACLU] haven’t attended his class,” Magill said, adding that the complaint was compiled primarily on information from students.

According to a video of one of Lopez’s taped lectures, available to his students on the Internet and recently obtained by The Rampage, a PowerPoint presentation had a slide titled “Homosexuality Facts.” The video showed Lopez making comments as the information was displayed, information that some students called offensive and inappropriate.

The slide, among other things, described homosexuality as “a biological misapplication of human sexuality,” and “a one-sided foundation for raising children.” In the video, Lopez told students that same-sex attractions were a “dead end” and a disorder and he recommended psychological counseling for people who had them.

Top Fresno City College officials voiced their commitment to proper teaching ethics and fair treatment of students, re-enforcing the discretion the campus has with these issues.

“Every course has an outline,” President Azari told The Rampage. “We have to make sure faculty members adhere to the course outline.” Azari said that the situation is currently under investigation by the college and that actions will be taken in March should the need arise.

During a Feb. 17 interview with The Rampage, Dr. Wendell Stephenson, a philosophy instructor at FCC and member of the Academic Senate, stressed two leading principles that he hopes will be upheld regarding the Lopez case.

The first principle is the preservation of academic freedom, but also that instructors “abide by the law and the ethics of [their] profession,” Stephenson said. He also felt that the college has a duty to act quickly in a case involving possible abuse of that academic freedom.

Stephenson asked the Academic Senate to discuss the issue during its Feb. 10 meeting but the item did not make the agenda. Further discussion of the matter, Stephenson told the Rampage, would add clarity to the situation and outline, “what laws are clearly applicable to classroom interaction with students.”

The next Academic Senate meeting will be held Feb. 24 at 3 p.m. in the staff dining room and the issue will likely be on the agenda, according to Stephenson. “If it isn’t, I’ll be plenty upset,” he said.

But handling a complaint such as this takes time, Azari said, adding that the college must, “go through a process, because everyone should be respected.”

Staff writers Jordan Hoover, Max Rosendahl and Ramiro Gudino contributed to this report.