MSU settles lawsuit with student who wouldn't counsel gay couples

Missouri State University officials agreed to pay $25,000 to settle a lawsuit with a former student who claimed he was kicked out of the counseling program after he said he wouldn't counsel gay couples.

In a settlement finalized last month, and obtained by the News-Leader through an open records request, the MSU Board of Governors agreed to pay Andrew Cash $25,000, which is "the estimated tuition cost for Cash to obtain a master's degree in counseling from Evangel University or another similar institution."

MSU spokeswoman Suzanne Shaw said the settlement money will come from the State of Missouri legal defense fund.

Among the conditions of the settlement, Cash cannot seek admission or employment with MSU, and the university does not admit any liability.

In a federal lawsuit filed in April, Cash said he was removed from the master's counseling program at MSU in 2014 after he tried to complete his internship at a Christian-based counseling agency.

The lawsuit says Cash was a student at MSU in January 2011 when he began an internship at the Springfield Marriage and Family Institute.

That semester, Cash was assigned to do a class presentation. For his presentation, Cash asked W.K. Boyce, the supervisor of his internship at the Springfield Marriage and Family Institute, to talk to the class about Christian relationship counseling.

A student in the class asked Boyce if the Springfield Marriage and Family institute counseled gay couples, and Boyce told the class he does not give gay couples relationship counseling because of his religious beliefs, according to the lawsuit.

About a week later, Cash's internship coordinator at MSU asked to meet with him face-to-face, the lawsuit says.

Cash told his internship coordinator, Kristi Perryman, that he would also not counsel gay couples, according to the lawsuit, and Perryman told Cash that went against the American Counseling Association's code of ethics.

The lawsuit says Perryman told Cash he was not allowed to continue his internship at the Springfield Marriage and Family institute because of "ethical concerns."

The lawsuit says Cash was then placed on a remediation plan and told that his internship hours at the Springfield Marriage and Family Institute would not count.

In November 2014, the lawsuit says, Cash was removed from the master's program. The lawsuit says he had a 3.81 GPA.

The lawsuit says Cash was "targeted and punished for expressing his Christian worldview."

Cash was represented by Chicago-based attorney Thomas Olp with the Thomas More Society, a group that represents people on pro-life and religious freedom issues. A spokesman for the group recently told the News-Leader he could not comment on the settlement.

The original defendants in the case were the MSU Board of Governors members, MSU President Clif Smart, and three faculty members —  Perryman, Tamara Arthaud and Angela Anderson.

The settlement in this case is comparable to the roughly $27,000 the university paid to another student, Emily Brooker, when she sued the university in 2006.

Brooker, a student in the School of Social Work, accused the school and a faculty member of violating her First Amendment rights when she refused to sign a letter supporting same-sex adoption.