Phew, damn it was just a piece of paper with the word jesus on it, for a minute there i thought..........

he's had to deal with a lot more shit than that right

And I ask this as someone who doesn't even believe Jesus existed. But this just seems extreme even to me.

Any one thing that seems symbolic/unimportant to one person may be deeply symbolic and important to another.

I think, though, that the point of this exercise was to elicit a class discussion as to why students did/did not believe that this was appropriate, and that the real cause of the suspension was due to another cause than refusal.

Personally, I am reminded of the freakout and furor over cartoon images of Allah and so many "good Christians" making fun of those it upset.

It's not a person, or even a idea. I dunno, maybe that's the point? (Not my class or professor, so I'm just guessing.)

don't judge till you try

Certainly an art class couldn't suspend a Muslim student for refusing to draw a cartoon of Mohammed.

And I have some doubts that this is true - it sounds too bizarre - this is not communication but forced expression.

Could a student in this class be suspended for refusing to salute the flag, say the Marine motto, step on the Rainbow flag, or wear revealing/extremely modest clothing?

In a communications class, one would think that the point of such an exercise would be to get someone to refuse and then have a class discussion as to why the student refused.

I suspect it was the student's demeanor during the discussion that caused the suspension. But I don't know a darned thing, so that's just my guess.

put it in a bowl and my dog would eat it. Now this opens up all sorts of new possibilities!

I suspect the root cause for his suspension lies more in the way he 'voiced his concern' than the incident itself.

"Student claimed".........

I would have refused on the grounds of not participating in a pointless exercise that might actually offend some people (however unreasonable we might think that is). I don't see the point of deliberately doing offensive things, even for "educational purposes." Good teachers, regardless of the teaching venue, show respect for all students and don't ask them to do deliberately offensive things. I would have announced my reasons for refusing, walked out and dropped the course if possible.

I should add - the teacher could have accomplished the same educational goal by posing the exercise as a hypothetical - "What if I were to ask you to ......" or "What if someone were to...."

The desired discussion about the perception as to what is offensive in different cultures would have been achieved without actually offending anybody.