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Portland State University, one of Oregon's largest, has been hit with a million-dollar civil rights lawsuit.

(Betsy Hammond / The Oregonian)

A former Portland State University student who worked as a pornographic bondage model is

, asserting that an English professor's intense interest in the student's sex work derailed her academically and made her physically ill.

Marcia Klotz

Whitney "Theda" Orlando alleges in her federal lawsuit that professor Marcia Klotz fixated on her sexual history and bondage work, and used her influence over Orlando's college opportunities to coerce her to provide sex-related material.

The case highlights the challenge university officials can face in drawing a line between a faculty member's legitimate academic engagement with sexually tinged topics – the professor taught a class on "The Erotics of Power" and wrote a paper titled "It's Not Really Porn" – from sexual matters inappropriate to discuss with a student.

Nationally, at least three professors, including one at the University of Colorado, have been disciplined in recent years for the way they discussed masturbation, pornography or prostitution in class. Fellow professors and champions of academic freedom decried the sanctions as snuffing out legitimate and protected exploration of edgy ideas in higher education.

In a widely watched case, a star philosophy professor at the University of Miami found to have engaged in sexual banter with a graduate student agreed to resign last year -- even though, as was the case at Portland State, the relationship between professor and student never became physical.

Whitney "Theda" Orlando

Portland State officials acknowledge that much of what Orlando alleges is true: Klotz, an assistant professor of English, exchanged more than 200 emails with her, many of them about sexual topics, from 2009 to 2012.

Klotz complimented some bondage photographs Orlando sent her, requested and accepted more, and asked Orlando to put her in touch with others who engaged in bondage or sadomasochism so she could ask them research questions, PSU lawyers say.

Klotz declined to comment for this story, on the advice of attorneys. Orlando, through her attorney, also declined to comment.

After Orlando disclosed to Klotz that she had been sexually abused by a teacher during childhood, Klotz continued to discuss sexual topics with her and told Orlando how someone else's past child sex abuse played a role in her own sex life,

At Orlando's urging, Klotz joined Orlando and others to watch a documentary about a pornography website, PSU lawyers say. Her paper, "It's Not Really Porn: Insex and the Revolution in Technological Interactivity," was about that site and included references to Orlando and her work as a bondage model, though as an unnamed student of hers.

In her lawsuit, Orlando says she was made to feel uncomfortable "by the escalating level of sexual tension in her relationship with Klotz." The suit alleges that Klotz used her academic authority over Orlando to get sexual gratification from her and to compel her to study sex-related topics. And it says Orlando suffered stress, anxiety and heart problems requiring hospitalization because of that pressure.

Lawyers for Portland State deny the university is responsible for Orlando's health and academic problems. The university has policies against harassment, discrimination and retaliation, but Orlando "unreasonably" failed to take advantage of them by reporting Klotz, they say.

Until she filed suit, Orlando never complained to anyone at PSU, and university officials had no way of knowing about her private communications with Klotz, they say.

In a 2012 statement posted on a Portland State web site, Orlando said she never would have considered pursuing her Ph.D. "without the persistent encouragement that I received from Marcia Klotz, PhD. It is to her that I owe my academic fervor."

Klotz, who left Portland State after 10 years in June 2013 to take a job in Arizona, did not notify university officials that she had begun a personal relationship with Orlando, PSU officials say. Such notice is required by university policy if a professor enters a relationship with a student that is "amorous, romantic or sexual in nature."

Two consenting adults are free to enter a personal relationship, the policy says. But if a professor develops a relationship with a student, "where a power differential exists, the instructor should report the matter, as soon as possible, to his or her immediate supervisor," such as the department chair. From then on, an objective third party will control the grades, progress and other results for the student, it says.

A nearly identical policy was in place at the University of Miami, where philosophy professor Colin McGinn was drummed out after a graduate student complained he had harassed her with emails and text messages that contained sexual banter.

Writing about the case in Slate, New York University professor Katie Roiphe did not disagree that McCann's words-only relationship with his student was "amorous," but noted, "In a swampy situation like this, there is ... the question of what exactly you would say to the relevant university office, and when exactly, if you are not sleeping with someone."

Had Klotz reported a relationship with Orlando, she would have been prevented from overseeing Orlando's participation in a prestigious Ronald McNair scholars program. Instead, Orlando was accepted into the program and mentored by Klotz as she pursued plans to write a paper on "Disavowed Power: The Experiences of Early Adolescents Reporting Adult-Child Sex to Law Enforcement."

Lawyers for PSU acknowledge that Orlando was hospitalized in 2012 with a racing heartbeat but say there is no evidence pressure from Klotz was the cause.

They also acknowledge that when Orlando changed her McNair paper to one on methods for stress management written under the guidance of someone else, Klotz encouraged her to stick with a sex-related subject related to her personal experiences.

When Orlando submitted the stress paper instead, Klotz deemed it as failing to meet McNair requirements and told university officials she believed Orlando had plagiarized it.

Orlando attended PSU beginning in 2006 but left after spring 2013 without earning a degree. She is now a student at Marylhurst University, said her attorney, Bear Wilner-Nugent.

Portland State has paid lawyers at the Miller Nash law firm $64,000 so far to defend it and Klotz in the suit. The money came from a university system legal account, not university funds, spokesman Scott Gallagher said.

-- Betsy Hammond