Professor fired after Texas A&M gender lesson controversy sues school

article

COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS - MARCH 6: Attends a protest sponsored by Texas A&M University Queer Empowerment Council's Day of Drag protest on campus in College Station on Thursday, March 6, 2025. The protest was against the school system's recent

Expand

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Following a controversy over a gender identity lesson at Texas A&M University, a professor who lost her job over the class has sued the school.

The former instructor claims the school violated her constitutional rights and illegally broke their contract with her when she was terminated last year.

Texas A&M professor lawsuit

What's new:

Professor Melissa McCoul was the first to face dramatic consequences in the university's recent crusade against gender and race-related topics in the classroom. Her lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the Southern District of Texas, seeks damages from the school for allegedly violating her constitutional and contractual rights.

The suit says the school fired McCoul over the content of her course, which she says was speech that's protected under the First Amendment. She also says she wasn't given proper notice, explanation or chance to defend herself before she was dismissed, thereby violating her Fourteenth Amendment rights.

In addition, McCoul claims the school's actions cost her money, retirement contributions and benefits, as well as other potential damages to her future career. She also says she suffered public embarrassment and emotional distress.

Texas A&M controversy begins

The backstory:

Early in September 2025, Texas lawmakers turned the public's eye toward McCoul's classroom after a student recorded herself confronting the professor during a lesson including LGBTQ+ content in a children's literature course. The video, which went viral on social media, showed McCoul sending the student out of the class for challenging her ability to teach on such topics.

The student referenced an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 20, 2025, titled "DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT." The order, in part, prevents public funding from promoting "gender ideology," and defines male and female as the only genders.

Following calls for firings from state legislators, two administrators in McCoul's department were demoted before the professor herself was fired. After McCoul, then-university president Mark A. Welsh III stepped down from his role.

Featured

Texas Tech joins A&M in restricting race, LGBTQ+ course content

article

Texas Tech joins A&M in restricting race, LGBTQ+ course content

The move comes after the Texas A&M system's similar set of rules were put in place, following a controversy that ended in demotions, a firing and a resignation.

Texas A&M restricts gender content

Dig deeper:

As the dust began to settle, the university board took measures to prevent similar course content from being taught in the future. In their November 2025 meeting, they redefined race and gender ideology and banned professors from teaching on the subjects without first receiving permission from system administrators.

These tightened standards for class discourse first caught the attention of the public at the beginning of the spring 2026 semester, when a philosophy professor was given a choice between removing gender-related sections of Plato's Symposium from his intro-level course syllabus or being reassigned to a different class. The professor replaced the content with sections on free speech, swapping Plato's writings out for a New York Times article about his situation.

Since then, the university system has reportedly canceled several courses and modified hundreds of others to accommodate the new rules.