A Texas A&M University professor who was fired last year after a controversy over a classroom video that showed a student objecting to a children’s literature lesson about gender identity sued the school on Wednesday, alleging the university violated her rights by bowing to political pressure calling for her ouster.
Melissa McCoul was a senior lecturer in the English department with over a decade of teaching experience. Republican lawmakers, including Gov. Greg Abbott, had called for her termination after seeing the video, which showed a student questioning whether the class discussion last July was legal under President Donald Trump’s executive order on gender.
The video roiled the campus and led to sharp criticism of university president Mark Welsh, who later resigned, but didn’t offer a reason and never mentioned the video in his resignation announcement.
The university upheld McCoul’s firing even after two separate, independent university groups determined Texas A&M violated her right to due process and did not have cause to terminate her employment.
“Today I did something that would have been inconceivable a year ago – I’ve sued Texas A&M to hold it accountable for violations of my Constitutional rights to free speech and due process of law. There’s no satisfaction in doing this, only sadness,” McCoul said in a statement. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Houston.
Chris Bryan, the vice chancellor for marketing and communications for the Texas A&M University System, said Wednesday that school officials are aware of the lawsuit but have not reviewed it.
“As this is pending litigation, we will not comment further, but we intend to vigorously defend against the claims,” Bryan said in a statement.
Named in the lawsuit as defendants were Welsh, Interim President Tommy Williams, Texas A&M University System Chancellor Glenn Hegar and the Texas A&M System’s Board of Regents.
After McCoul’s firing, Hegar ordered an audit of courses at all 12 schools in the system.
McCoul’s lawsuit comes less than a week after Texas A&M University announced it is ending its women’s and gender studies program, changing the syllabuses of hundreds of courses and canceling six classes as part of a new policy that limits how professors can discuss some race and gender topics.
Other university systems in Texas have also placed restrictions on classroom instruction or have begun internal reviews of course offerings following a new state law.
In her lawsuit, McCoul pushed back on claims by Texas A&M officials that she failed to follow instructions to change her course content to align with the course catalog description. McCoul said her course content was “100 percent aligned with the catalog description, 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,” according to the lawsuit.
McCoul described teaching at Texas A&M as her “dream job.” She had been at the university since 2017. In her lawsuit, she is seeking reinstatement and monetary damages.
“Despite how I was treated, I still love the institution, my former colleagues, and the students of A&M. I hope that this lawsuit will cause the University to think twice about treating others similarly,” McCoul said.
