OzeEssay: The 682 Words That Silenced a Thousand Classrooms University of Oklahoma – December 11, 2025 A Completely Normal Assignment Lifespan Development, PSY 2603. Reaction Paper #4: “Read the attached article on gender typicality and mental health. Write a personal reaction (650–750 words). No outside sources required. Tell us what surprised you, what you agree or disagree with, and why.” Students had done three of these earlier in the semester. The highest grade so far had gone to a paper that cited TikTok and personal horoscopes. Everyone understood the game. The Paragraph That Broke the Game Samantha Fulnecky wrote: “The study is right that gender-nonconforming kids suffer more, but it never asks the real question: why are we celebrating rebellion against God’s design? Calling something ‘non-binary’ doesn’t make it true; it’s a demonic lie from the enemy meant to confuse children and steal their peace. True mental health is only found when we repent and walk in the identity the Creator gave us—male or female, nothing else.” She signed it with a short prayer. The Zero That Took Less Time to Give Than to Read Mel Curth, the transgender graduate teaching assistant, finished the paper, opened the rubric, and entered 0/25. Comment (in full): “This is not a reaction to psychological research; it is religious condemnation of LGBTQ+ existence, including my own. Zero stands. No resubmission.” That was the entire conversation. The Next Ten Days in Fast-Forward Day 2: screenshots reach Turning Point USA OU Day 3: Curth is doxxed by name, photo, office location Day 4: first death threat (“we know where you park”) Day 7: Curth moved to undisclosed university housing with 24-hour security Day 9: Fulnecky on Fox & Friends, crying, $200k raised overnight Day 11: Curth deletes every online trace of their existence Day 27 (today): Fulnecky fund $289,000; Curth fund $152,000 and frozen The Things Nobody Disputes Anymore The assignment genuinely invited personal opinion. The word “demonic” aimed at a marginalized group made any grade above zero radioactive for the university. The tenured professor who actually owns the course has never once spoken publicly. Reaction-paper prompts are being deleted from syllabi faster than IT can update the course portals. The Settlement Already Written in Pencil Insiders say the final terms are done: Grade quietly changed to 71 % Six-figure payment + continued health insurance to Curth Mutual NDAs thicker than the original paper Public statements limited to one bland sentence from the provost about “commitment to civil discourse” The Real Casualty Not Samantha’s GPA. Not Mel’s sense of safety. The real casualty [Ozessay](https://www.ozessay.com.au/) is the fragile, mostly imaginary space where a 20-year-old believer and a 28-year-old queer instructor could have read each other’s words, felt the sting, and still treated each other as human beings worthy of dialogue.