BUZZ
English professor alleges her free speech and due process rights were violated
An English professor sued Texas A&M University this week, alleging the public institution violated her right to free speech when it fired her for teaching gender ideology lessons in a children’s literature class.
In the federal lawsuit, filed Wednesday, lecturer Melissa McCoul also alleges the university violated her due process rights, Houston Public Media reports. She is asking a federal judge to require Texas A&M to reinstate her to her position in the English Department, which she held since 2017.
“There’s no satisfaction in doing this, only sadness,” McCoul said in a statement this week. “I had hoped to keep doing that work for many years to come. … I hope that this lawsuit will cause the University to think twice about treating others similarly.”
The university fired McCoul in September after Texas state Rep. Brian Harrison posted a video on X of a dispute between her and an unnamed student about the gender ideology she was teaching, The College Fix previously reported.
The Republican lawmaker also called for McCoul to be fired.
Her lawsuit alleges Gov. Greg Abbott’s office also pressured former Texas A&M President Mark Welsh to fire her and “Provost Alan Sams was told by his supervisors not to give her a required hearing beforehand,” Houston Public Media reports.
According to the lawsuit, McCoul’s lessons did not violate any university policy or law, and the children’s literature course was “not intended as an overview of books that educators or parents might read with or to children.”
Instead, she taught the class “as a lens through which various aspects of society are examined.” Her case also alleges her classroom materials “100 percent aligned” with the course description.
“The explanations offered for Dr. McCoul’s termination are inconsistent and nonsensical because they are untrue. Dr. McCoul was terminated because of the so-called ‘liberal,’ ‘woke’ themes she explored in her courses,” the lawsuit claims.
It alleges the university fired her “for exercising her academic freedom guaranteed under the First Amendment.”
Responding, a university spokesperson told the Associated Press the university has not yet reviewed the lawsuit.
“As this is pending litigation, we will not comment further, but we intend to vigorously defend against the claims,” spokesperson Chris Bryan said in a statement.
A union member, McCoul is receiving legal aid from the American Association of University Professors Texas Conference and the American Federation of Teachers.
As The Fix previously reported, Rep. Harrison’s X posts included details from McCoul’s lessons:
“Students were forced to learn the ‘gender unicorn,’ which propagandizes extreme transgender ideology. … During a class instruction on ‘let’s talk gender in children’s lit,’ the professor taught that ‘childhood is the time for figuring out how to be a boy, girl, man, woman, or another gender’ and that ‘children and adolescents are expected to be sexless, even as our culture valorizes, idealizes, and even eroticizes youth.’”
In one of the posted videos, McCoul begins to recap a previous lesson on “gender and sexuality” when a student voices concerns, arguing the instruction violated Executive Order No. 14168, which limits federal gender identifications to the two biological sexes.
“This goes against not just mine, but a lot of people’s religious beliefs,” the student can be heard saying. “I am not going to participate in this because it’s not legal, and I don’t want to promote something that is against our president’s laws and my religious beliefs.”
After mentioning she has a scheduled meeting with the university president, the student is told by the professor she is “very free to leave” and will not be “effective in stopping me from teaching things that are biologically true.”
MORE: Texas professor fired over gender-identity lessons in children’s lit class files appeal
