The Texas Tribune reports that Melissa McCoul was let go earlier this week for allegedly not changing her course content to match its description. She is disputing her cause for termination and exploring legal options, according to a statement from her attorney.
Texas A&M President Mark Welsh fired McCoul after a video showed a confrontation between, she and a student in a children's literature course.
Here is a portion of the student's comments from a video posted on X. "I'm not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching because according to our president, there's only two genders, and he said that he would be freezing agencies' funding programs that promote gender ideology. This also very much goes against not only myself, but a lot of people's religious beliefs."
Sherry Sylvester of the Texas Public Policy Foundation says it's indoctrination.
"The mission of the coursework was, 'How do you introduce gender ideology to children? I often say that our universities are the 'Wuhan Wet Labs of Woke.' When we wonder how we get this stuff in public schools, that was a class for public school teachers."
The fallout could reach Welsh at the very top of the A&M chain though for now he remains employed.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick upped the pressure on Welsh on Thursday, saying it was “unacceptable” that he initially sided with the professor who kicked a student out of class after the student objected to a lesson teaching that there are more than two genders, The Houston Chronicle reported.
In a conversation with the student, Welsh indicated how long it takes to institute academic change, which may allude to how long LGBTQ courses have been gestating at TAMU without internal objection. “It takes about 18 months to get courses approved,” he said, according to Texas Scorecard.
The student challenged the ongoing employment of McCoul alleging, “She’s clearly prejudiced and discriminatory toward anyone who doesn’t support her personal agenda and ideology.”
Student stands strong
Welsh countered, “Many others in the class don’t believe she’s that way.”
The student pushed back, asserting that “at least 75 percent” of her peers shared her concerns about the course and that six others were collaborating with her to “get this issue fixed.”
Sylvester said it would be different if a course just presented both sides.
The incident has prompted a policy change for the Texas A&M board which will now audit every course.
Sylvester says a new state law gives higher education boards responsibility for educational curriculum.
"Academic freedom does not give any professor the right to indoctrinate students with one theory while rejecting and belittling other theories."
