Asst. Principal Fired For Claiming 'Laramie Project' Defames Christians Sues School

He asked that the school not put on the play because it portrays Christians in a bad light

A former Assistant Principal in Parker, Colorado is suing the school that fired him two years ago after he demanded that the school not put on a production of The Laramie Project, claiming that this was religious discrimination and that the school fired him for his "Christian beliefs."

 The Laramie Project is a play about the 1998 murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard, who was brutally beaten to death in Laramie, Wyoming. It was put together by a theater group that interviewed hundreds of residents of the town after the murder and during the trial and the script largely consists of these interviews, diary entries from the theater group and news articles about the murder. It is, to be clear, not a work of fiction.

In 2020, while Corey McNellis was still working at Ponderosa High School, he received an email notifying him and other staff that the school's production of The Laramie Project would debut in three weeks. McNellis responded to this email with “As a Dad of a student here and also as an employee in the school, what is my recourse if I disagree with the production? Was this a heads up to see if everyone is cool?”

It was not a head's up to see if everyone was cool, because it was the year 2020 and the very idea of someone getting any kind of "recourse" if they "disagree with the production" is absurd. Also if it were that, one would have to imagine that it would have occurred prior to even holding auditions for the show.

Following the email, there were a number of exchanges between McNellis and other school employees, with one offering to help him understand The Laramie Project from “a social studies perspective,” which McNellis responded to by offering to show the teacher "a Christian one." The lawsuit most of this information comes from is obviously entirely from McNellis's point of view, so it seems likely that — given that he was fired for his actions — things went a little deeper than this.

McNellis' specific objection to the play was that it made Christians look bad and that he was “how the Christian religion comes across in the play,” because the includes interviews with “Christian leaders, some of whom share unsavory opinions regarding Shepard’s murder, and cite their Christian faith as the reason for their views.” He insists his issue with the play had nothing to do with him being "anti-LGBTQ," just that he was concerned about its portrayal of Christians.

It is understandable that McNellis finds those interviews distressing. Anyone would. It would be one thing if it were a work of fiction that portrayed Christians as doing and saying things they had never been known to say or do, but these are interviews we're talking about. It's what those people said and it's kind of the whole point of the play. There are still people saying those things now and "citing their Christian faith as the reason for their views," so perhaps McNellis should be more concerned with them than he is with The Laramie Project .

According to the lawsuit, which again did not include transcriptions of the emails he either sent or received, the exchanges between McNellis and other staff members were sent to school administrators. McNellis later received another email from an administrator asking him to stay home the next day because of his "religious comments." He was then put on leave and then fired following an investigation.

Though we only know McNellis' perspective here, it seems highly unlikely that he was fired simply for expressing his Christian beliefs, given that as far as anyone knows, it is not actually against the Christian religion for Christians to be directly quoted in a play, or anywhere else.

If you feel like watching or rewatching The Laramie Project now, it is free on YouTube. 

 Do your Amazon shopping through this link, because reasons .

Wonkette is independent and fully funded by readers like you. Click below to tip us!