Houston (AP) – A professor at Texas A&M University was released and others were removed from their positions after a video appeared in which a student confronted the instructor in a class about children’s literature because of their teaching of questions in connection with the gender identity.
The dismissal of Melissa McOoul, a high -ranking lecturer in the English department with over a decade of teaching experience, took place after the political pressure of the Republican legislators, including governor Greg Abbott, who had requested her termination.
The incident prompted Glenn Hegar, the Chancellor of the University System in Texas A&M, to order an examination of courses in all 12 schools in the system.
“It is unacceptable for the Faculty of A&M System to drive a personal political agenda,” said Hegar in a statement on Monday. “We have the task of training the next generation of teachers and childcare experts. This responsibility should prioritize the protection of children prioritize for indoctrination.”
In an e -mail, McCoul referred all questions to her lawyer Amanda Reichek. In an explanation, Reichek said that McCoul had appealed against her termination and “examined further legal steps”.
“Dr. McCoul was released into the deviation of its constitutional rights and academic freedom that was once the trademark of university formation in Texas,” said Reichek.
Mark A. Welsh III, President of Texas A & M University, said in a statement on Tuesday that he instructed the Campus provost to relieve McCoul after he had learned that the instructor had further taught in a children’s literature course, “who did not match the standard curriculum for the course with reasonable expectations.”
Welsh said that the problem was addressed in the early summer and he “made it clear to our academic leadership that the course content must correspond to catalog descriptions for each of our sections of the course”. Welsh said he found out on Monday that this would not take place.
“This is not about academic freedom. It’s about academic responsibility,” said Welsh.
In her statement, Reichek pushed back Welsh’s claim not to coordinate McCoul’s teaching with the course description.
“The course content of Professor McCoul completely matched the catalog and the course description, and it was never instructed to change its course content in any way, in any form or form,” said Reichek. “In fact, Dr. McCoul taught this course and others like it successfully and without a challenge for many years.”
Welsh also ordered the removal of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the head of the English department from its administrative positions.
The actions of Texas A&M were criticized by faculty and writer groups.
“We experience the death of academic freedom in Texas, the new formation of universities as tools of authoritarianism that suppress free thinking,” said Jonathan Friedman, Managing Director of Sy Syms, director of US Free Expression at Pen America.
The Texas Chapter of the American Association of University Professors said what happened at Texas A & M University should affect every Texan.
“The integrity of academic freedom is not only under fire, but the proper procedural rights of a faculty member were also stepped with feet with the urge of state politicians + of the governor,” said the group in a statement.
The controversy began on Monday after the Republican representative of the state of Brian Harrison published a video, audio recordings and other materials on a thread on the social media site X. Harrison.
In a video, a student and the professor can be argued about gender identity in a children’s literature class. The student and the professor are not shown and it is unclear when the video was recorded.
“This also contradicts me, but also many religious beliefs.
“If you feel uncomfortable in this class, you have the right to go. What we do is not illegal,” said the professor.
In her back and forth with the professor, the student mentioned an executive regulation that President Donald Trump signed in the early this year, in which he said that “it was the politics of the United States to recognize two genders, male and female.”
A Texas law came into force on September 1st that the Texas K-12 schools prohibited it to inform about sexual orientation or gender identity. The law does not apply to universities and other university institutions.
Texas A&M is located in the college station, about 153 kilometers northwest of Houston.
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