Texas professor fired over gender-identity lessons in children’s lit class files appeal

A Texas A&M University professor who was fired after a student whistleblower and Republican state lawmaker teamed up to expose repeated gender ideology lessons in a children’s literature class has appealed her termination.

Lecturer Melissa McCoul was fired earlier this week after Texas state Rep. Brian Harrison posted online pictures of class lessons touting gender identity and gender fluid themes. The Republican lawmaker also posted surreptitiously recorded videos of a student complaining the curriculum not only violated a presidential executive order, but also conflicted with her religion.

The student, who is not named, was told to leave the classroom, the recordings show.

Amanda Reichek, McCoul’s attorney, told The College Fix her client “was a highly regarded Senior Lecturer at Texas A&M University with over a decade of teaching experience under her belt, when she was summarily terminated.”

“Professor McCoul’s course content was entirely consistent with the catalog and course description, and she was never instructed to change her course content,” Reichek said via email.

“Instead, Dr. McCoul was fired in derogation of her constitutional rights and the academic freedom that was once the hallmark of higher education in Texas. She has appealed her termination and is exploring further legal action.”

Rep. Harrison’s office did not immediately respond to The College Fix’s request for comment. A representative from Texas A&M declined The Fix’s request for comment.

Rep. Harrison uploaded his lengthy threat X thread last week, asking Gov. Greg Abbott “to fire the A&M officials involved and to instruct his Regents at all public universities to immediately end all DEI and LGBTQ indoctrination.”

Part of his thread includes 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.”

Harrison identified the class as Children’s Literature, listed as ENGL 360 on the university website. It is described as discussing “[r]epresentative writers, genres, texts and movements” in the field of child reading.

The politician’s thread on X garnered responses from Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, as well as pressure from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to fire McCoul.

University President Mark Welsh announced the removal of English Department leaders from their administrative positions, along with a full audit of the university’s courses, saying students have the right to know the curriculum of each class before enrolling.

Texas A&M System Chancellor Glenn Hegar commended Welsh, saying his “action shows that insubordination and indoctrination have no place on our campus or in our classrooms.”

Others, like the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, disagree.

“The message from Texas is alarming: Professors teach at the mercy of those in power, not under the protection of academic freedom or the First Amendment,” FIRE stated. “Welsh’s attempt to wave aside Texas A&M’s binding legal obligation to uphold academic freedom does not excuse McCoul’s termination.”

Before elected officials became involved, Welsh was opposed to firing McCoul at all, according to audio released by Harrison.

In a meeting over the summer, when the student tells Welsh that McCoul “is discriminatory to anybody who does not share her personal agenda and ideology,” Welsh asked her: “What do you expect us to do — fire her?”

“Yes, absolutely,” she responds, to which Welsh replied: “Well, that’s not happening.”

In another audio from their discussion, Welsh told the student “you can’t fix the problem,” and to “do what you do, I don’t care . . . you’re picking a fight again.”

Welsh and McCoul have over a decade of experience at the university, and both have faced scrutiny for their political affiliations. 

According to her CV, McCoul, a 2017 Notre Dame Ph.D., was a “pride mentor” during her time at the university, describing her Children’s Literature course as examining “recent trends in middle-grade literature, with special focus on diversity in gender, sexuality and race.”

Welsh was appointed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Barack Obama, and has voiced support for using DEI to counter “white privilege.” 

For Rep. Harrison, the fight against Welsh, who he calls “a Marxist progressive leftist,” has only just begun. In a Newsmax interview, Harrison expressed outrage at a “weeks-long coverup.”

“The president of A&M needs to be fired, and quite frankly, he should have been fired a long time ago,” he said.