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Texas A&M University will not reinstate a lecturer who was fired in the fall after a video of her teaching about gender identity in a children’s literature class went viral, despite a faculty appeals panel unanimously concluding that her dismissal was not justified.
The New York Times first reported Wednesday that interim Texas A&M president Tommy Williams deferred the decision to the university system, and that James Hallmark, the system’s vice chancellor for academic affairs, wrote in a Dec. 19 memo that Melissa McCoul’s termination in September was supported by “good cause.” He did not explain his reasoning.
McCoul’s attorney, Amanda Reichek, confirmed to The Texas Tribune that this sequence of events occurred.
“Dr. McCoul is disappointed by the University’s unexplained decision to uphold her termination, but looks forward to pursuing her First Amendment, Due Process, and breach of contract claims in court very soon,” Reichek wrote in a statement.
Chris Bryan, the system’s vice chancellor of marketing and communications, also confirmed McCoul was not reinstated, but declined to comment further.
McCoul was fired in September after a student over the summer secretly recorded a classroom exchange in which the student disagreed with McCoul about whether it was legal to teach that there are more than two genders. The student then met with — and also secretly recorded — then-university president Mark Welsh III, who initially refused to fire McCoul. State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, posted the videos on X weeks after they were made.
Although there is no law prohibiting instruction that acknowledges more than two genders, Welsh did eventually fire her after the videos drew conservative backlash, saying her teaching was not consistent with the course description. Welsh later resigned.
After McCoul’s firing, the university system began reviewing courses across its 12 universities, including through the use of an artificial intelligence tool. On Dec. 18, the Board of Regents passed a policy prohibiting courses from “advocating race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity” except in certain non-core or graduate courses that are reviewed, shown to serve a “necessary educational purpose” and approved in writing by a campus president.
Two faculty panels have found McCoul’s termination was not justified and that her academic freedom was violated, concluding the university fired her over what she taught and failed to follow required dismissal procedures.
The controversy at Texas A&M, along with new laws expanding the power of governor-appointed regents over curriculum, hiring and discipline and expression on campuses, sparked changes across Texas higher education, with university systems launching course audits and adopting new restrictions on how race, gender and sexuality are taught.
The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
Disclosure: The New York Times, Texas A&M University and the Texas A&M University System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
