Texas A&M University has unjustly fired a member of their faculty, Professor Melissa McCoul, over a lesson on gender identities during her class that was supposedly outside of her lesson plan. In her summer semester lesson on children’s literature, McCoul taught various gender identities and sexualities using a “gender unicorn” diagram before being interrupted by a closed-minded student. After a back-and-forth, McCoul asked the student to leave the class and continued teaching as normal.
On Sept. 8, State Rep. Brian Harrison posted a video showing what had occurred, calling for Gov. Greg Abbott “to fire the A&M officials involved and to instruct his Regents at all public universities to immediately end all DEI and LGBTQ indoctrination.”
The video was taken by the student questioning McCoul in class, having sneakily propped it up before interrupting the lesson. The student voiced her disagreement with the inclusive ideology being taught, denoting the professor’s teachings as “illegal” under Trump’s executive order that declared there are only two sexes and that a person’s sex cannot be changed. After the dispute between the student and professor, McCoul told the student she could take the issue to the department head and leave the class.
Rep. Harrison’s absurd request was heeded by Abbott, who, within a day, called for McCoul’s removal, saying, “Now, fire the teacher who acted contrary to Texas law.” Mark Welsh, Texas A&M University’s former president, who has since stepped down due to the controversy, announced McCoul’s discriminatory-based firing the same day of Abbott’s post.
Mark Zoran, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Emily Johansen, English Department Head, also had their positions wrongfully terminated following the incident, since they had a part in approving the course material.
Texas A&M University’s dismissal of its faculty over this incident proved to be a huge failure by the university and Texas politicians.
Welsh acted out of cowardice. He initially defended McCoul’s position when the student who sparked the initial debate asked for McCoul’s removal. Welsh responded, “Well, that’s not happening.” After the video sprang into virality and garnered the attention of bigoted Texas officials, he failed to stick by his faculty and instead gave in to inequity.
While not a surprising reaction from Texas politicians, their response to the surfaced video proves immensely upsetting. The exclusion of diversity, equity and inclusion discussions within schools and universities leads to a failure to properly educate Texas youth. Instead, lawmakers should focus on cultivating inclusive and supportive learning environments where students are educated on diversity and acceptance.
