EMPORIA (KSNT) – A jury has sided with a Kansas professor in a religious discrimination lawsuit against Emporia State University, awarding him nearly $6 million in damages.
In 2022, Dusti Howell filed a lawsuit in Lyon County District Court against ESU and its administrators Joan Brewer and Jim Persinger. In the lawsuit, Howell, who taught at ESU for 24 years, claimed the university violated his civil rights when it stopped granting him accommodations for religious observances.
According to court documents, Howell claimed the administrators conspired to impose new requirements on him, including an eight‑week advance approval process for religious absences that he said had never applied to other faculty. Howell also accused ESU of creating a hostile work environment by withholding key communications, soliciting student complaints and changing his course assignments without notice. Howell ultimately resigned from his position.
The case went to trial in Lyon County on Jan. 12 and the jury reached a guilty verdict on Wednesday. Howell’s attorney Linus Baker said Emporia State University, Brewer and Persinger are ordered to pay Howell nearly $5.7 million in damages. He said more punitive damages may be determined at future court hearings.
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