Texas A&M professor sues school after being fired for discussing gender identity

A Texas A&M University professor who was fired for discussing gender identity in the classroom last year is suing the school, Board of Regents and interim president, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Melissa McCoul’s lawsuit alleges former university President Mark Welsh III was contacted by Gov. Greg Abbott’s chief of staff, who pressed to terminate her, and that Provost Alan Sams was told to not give her a required hearing before doing so.

McCoul’s lawsuit also states that the university knowingly violated her free speech and due process rights to “appease political critics.”

In a statement released Wednesday, McCoul wrote that she could have never imagined suing Texas A&M, and described her role at the university as her “dream job.” She was hired by the university in 2017.

“There’s no satisfaction in doing this, only sadness,” McCoul wrote. “I had hoped to keep doing that work for many years to come. 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 is also asking for damages, back pay and to be reinstated to her position. She was in the second year of a three-year contract when she was terminated.

The termination came after Texas state Rep. Brian Harrison, Midlothian Republican, posted a video on social media of a student who recorded McCoul teaching about gender identity in a summer class. The student argued her lesson was in violation of a President Donald Trump executive order. There isn’t a Texas law prohibiting gender identity teaching.

In December, after McCoul’s firing, Texas A&M’s Board of Regents issued a guidance prohibiting faculty from “requiring or encouraging students to hold certain beliefs, particularly regarding gender or race ideology or sexual orientation, or to feel shame for belonging to certain racial or ethnic groups.”

Texas A&M last week also ended its women’s and gender studies programs, and said that hundreds of course syllabuses have been or will be altered under a new policy regulating how gender can be discussed in class.