An English professor is suing the president of a Florida college that she says fired her for assigning a story that he called \u201cpolitical,\u201d according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The story, Ottessa Moshfegh\u2019s \u201cBettering Myself,\u201d is an award-winning story<\/a> narrated by a fictional teacher who drinks to excess, uses cocaine and discusses sex with her students.<\/p>\n The instructor, Vinita Prabhakar, said in an interview that she had taught the story in her classes for nearly a decade without incident. But in February, according to her lawsuit, the president of South Florida State College, Fred Hawkins, objected to the assignment after a student expressed \u201cmild discomfort.\u201d The president told Ms. Prabhakar that he would not want his college-age daughter to read the story, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n In a move that is highly unusual for a college president, Mr. Hawkins immediately ordered that Ms. Prabhakar be suspended and her contract not renewed, the suit says. The suit asks that she be restored to her teaching position.<\/p>\n The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a group that advocates free speech, is representing Ms. Prabhakar.<\/p>\n Some courts have ruled<\/a> that universities can restrict certain speech of university professors in classrooms. But they have also ruled<\/a> that the First Amendment offers greater protection if the speech is part of professors\u2019 official duties, which can include teaching approved material, and is not disruptive.<\/p>\n Ms. Prabhakar\u2019s attorneys also assert she is protected by a Florida law governing campus free speech. Public officials such as Mr. Hawkins \u201cmay not suppress speech because they dislike the ideas it conveys or fear a reaction to it,\u201d according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n The lawsuit is the latest legal battle over the boundaries of protected free speech in schools in Florida, where Republicans have for years sought to restrict teachings they believe are inappropriate or too left-leaning.<\/p>\n Mr. Hawkins and school officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has championed efforts to quash what he has deemed liberal indoctrination in education. For instance, he pushed a parental freedom law that limited instruction on gender and sexuality in elementary and middle schools<\/a>, prompting some districts to remove books featuring L.G.B.T.Q. characters.<\/p>\n In 2022, Mr. DeSantis also signed into law the Stop WOKE Act, which restricts concepts related to sexism and racism that can be taught<\/a> in K-12 schools. The law sought to do the same in higher education, allowing the state to limit the teaching of ideas related to race, sexism and unconscious bias by tying it to teacher salaries.<\/p>\n