Mr. Ford was concerned with his professor’s outward display of anger. He asked if it would be possible to discuss the matter privately. Although the clients were in the waiting room at the time, she just walked out of the room saying that she did not even want to remain near Mr. Ford.

After the session was over, Mr. Ford approached Professor Hecker in an honest attempt to resolve the sudden disruption. At this point, Hecker held up a copy of his letter to the editor and asked whether he wrote it. Mr. Ford admitted that he had and noted that he was unaware of any policy that prohibited him from writing letters to the editor.

Professor Hecker responded by saying that she did not know whether Mr. Ford could remain in the master’s program. She also stated that she would have to discuss the issue with the rest of the faculty. Mr. Ford responded by asking: “Is this something about which I should seek consultation?”

On August 23, 2004, Professor Wetchler sent Mr. Ford an e-mail saying that he wanted to meet to talk “about some of the things that have been happening lately.” Wetchler also sent a copy of the e-mail to other undisclosed recipients. The same day, Professor Flannery (Head of the Department of Behavioral Sciences) met with the program faculty. At the end of this meeting, he approved a memo, which was then placed in Mr. Ford’s mailbox. This memo stated that Purdue and the program had adopted the policy positions of the American Psychological Association on both “same-sex marriage” and same sex parenting.

Mr. Ford read the memorandum and was so disturbed that he had to leave the program clinic for the rest of the day. He feared that the faculty was preparing to remove him from the program. 

But, as the reader will learn in Part V, the faculty had something far worse in mind for our embattled Mormon friend.