{"id":150810,"date":"2026-02-04T17:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/150810\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T17:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:07:14","slug":"texas-am-professor-fired-after-viral-video-sues-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/150810\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas A&M professor fired after viral video sues university"},"content":{"rendered":"

COLLEGE STATION, Texas \u2014 The former English professor fired after a video of her discussing gender in her class went viral<\/a> last year is now suing Texas A&M University.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Melissa McCoul filed a lawsuit in federal court in Houston Wednesday morning, accusing Texas A&M University, the Texas A&M University System and its leaders of violating her First Amendment rights when they fired her without due process
\n
The lawsuit claims McCoul\u2019s termination was the result of political pressure after a student complained that the class was exploring the topic of gender, which McCoul says was included in the course description
\n
This all comes after McCoul was fired following a viral video of her and student, where the student claimed\u00a0McCoul\u2019s discussions of gender violated her religious beliefs and an executive order by President Donald Trump. The video was then shared by Republican officials on social media
\n
Following the incident, the chancellor ordered an audit of courses at all 12 schools in the Texas A&M University System. That audit of approximately 5,400 courses just recently finished and resulted in six courses being canceled and the\u00a0ending of the women\u2019s and gender studies program<\/a><\/p>\n

Melissa McCoul filed a lawsuit in federal court in Houston Wednesday morning, accusing Texas A&M University, the Texas A&M University System and its leaders of violating her First Amendment rights when they fired her without due process on Sept. 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit names as defendants the Board of Regents, Texas A&M University System Chancellor Glenn Hegar, former Texas A&M University President Mark Welsh III and Interim President Tommy Williams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McCoul is seeking reinstatement to her job and a declaratory judgment that she did not violate state law, university policy or directives. She\u2019s also asking for damages, including lost wages and compensation, and back pay.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit claims McCoul\u2019s termination was the result of political pressure after a student complained that the class was exploring the topic of gender, which McCoul says was included in the course description.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The complaint says Texas A&M fired her in violation of its own procedures, which require a finding of \u201cserious misconduct,\u201d an investigation and approval from a department head and a college dean. McCoul alleges she was never given an opportunity to defend herself and learned of her dismissal in an email from an administrator she had never met.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That letter from Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs Blanca Lupiani said McCoul had been told her curriculum did not align with the description in the course catalog and instructed her multiple times to change it but she chose not to follow the directive. But McCoul\u2019s lawsuit says she had never been instructed to change her course.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, the lawsuit claims administrators initially supported her when a student made a complaint about the content of her children\u2019s literature course last summer, even going so far as saying she was \u201cdoing a great job\u201d after an administrator sat in on the class.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But when the same student complained that McCoul would teach a similar course in the fall on young adult literature, Welsh changed the course she was teaching to a class called \u201cStudies in Genre\u201d in which all but one of her previous students enrolled. The student who complained about the original course was not enrolled in the class.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McCoul began teaching the course and thought the problem had been resolved. But on Sept. 8, state Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Waxahachie, posted a video on social media of the complaining student and McCoul arguing about the content of the summer course. The student said McCoul\u2019s discussions of gender violated her religious beliefs and an executive order by President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Later that day, Gov. Greg Abbott called for McCoul\u2019s firing on social media. The lawsuit alleges the administration folded to political pressure, denying her a hearing to face the accusations that led to her termination and breaching the terms of her contract with the university.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit paints McCoul as a beloved teacher whose classes, particularly those on children\u2019s and young adult literature, were so popular they often filled up within hours of opening registration. McCoul had never been reprimanded by the university in the eight years she worked there and had been commended for the \u201cstrength and clarity of her syllabi,\u201d the lawsuit says. Students had historically scored her \u201cwell above\u201d satisfactory, and her most recent annual evaluation had noted she \u201cexceeded expectations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She\u2019d taught the children\u2019s literature class \u201celeven times successfully and without a challenge\u201d and was so enamored with Texas A&M that she planned to work there until she was \u201ccarried out feet first.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also notes that a review council of faculty members<\/a> had found that McCoul\u2019s academic freedom had been violated by the university, yet the school still maintained her firing.\u00a0The internal committee unanimously ruled in McCoul\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

Following the incident, the chancellor ordered an audit of courses at all 12 schools in the Texas A&M University System. That audit of approximately 5,400 courses just recently finished and resulted in six courses being canceled and the ending of the women\u2019s and gender studies program<\/a>. The university has claimed that the cancellation of the program was because of a lack of student interest.<\/p>\n

The Texas A&M University System regents also voted in November<\/a> to require professors to receive approval from the school president to discuss some race and gender topics.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLLEGE STATION, Texas \u2014 The former English professor fired after a video of her discussing gender in her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6329,1657,1658,132,6328,102,62638,223,287,82,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-150810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-app-capital-tonight","tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-austin","tag-capital-tonight","tag-dallas","tag-james-barragan","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}