Melissa McCall, a professor at Texas A&M University, has been fired after being criticized by students for discussing gender identity.
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Her firing follows the removal from management positions of Mark Zoran, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Emily Johansen, head of the English department. McCoul is attractive and is considering her legal options.
Over the summer, students in McCoul’s children’s literature class opposed the professor’s claim that there were more than two genders. The student said this was illegal due to Donald Trump’s executive order. The federal government only recognizes the genders of men and women assigned at birth, thus denying the existence of transgender, non-binary, or intersex people. The student also said her religious sensibility made her angry at Makaur’s comments. The exchange was recorded on a cell phone video.
Texas A&M President Mark Wales announced Monday that the dean and department heads will be removed from these positions, but it is unclear whether they will continue as faculty, but records reported between him and the student said McCall would not be fired. But he On Tuesday, she issued a statement saying she had been fired.will take effect immediately. He didn’t name McCoul, but other sources identified her as the professor in question.
The reason he gave was that it was not specific about gender issues, and that the course materials were different from the catalog descriptions. After learning that the class “contained content that did not meet the reasonable expectations of the course’s standard curriculum,” he said in a statement.
“But I learned late yesterday that despite that order, the university continued to teach content that contradicts the course descriptions released this fall,” he continued. So he told the university’s Provost to close McCall and ordered the dean and department head to ensure that the course materials matched the published explanations, he wrote.
Republican politicians in Texas, including state legislators Brian Harrison and Gov. Greg Abbott, had been sought to fire McCool. Harrison called the McCarrr argument “indoctrination of transgender,” and urged the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the issues the DOJ said were doing. “To ensure that the A&M system undergoes disciplinary action to ensure that it does not occur again on one of our campuses,” said Glen Heger, prime minister of the Texas A&M system, which oversees the main campus of Texas A&M and 11 other universities.
McCoul is fighting back. Her lawyer, Amanda Reichek, said Texas Tribune That the professor’s course content matches the description and she was never instructed to change anything. She has taught children’s literature courses for several years, and hasn’t had any issues, Reichick said. Therefore, McCoul is suing for her dismissal and may take legal action.
The foundations of individual rights and expression advocating for free speech across the political spectrum have issued a statement denounced McCall’s firing. “After a video of students complaining about gender identity debate in Texas A&M ‘Children for Children’ Class went viral, Gov. Governor Greg Abbott requested content from Melissa McCool, a fire professor at Mark Walesch, president of Texas A&M.
“The message from Texas is amazing. The professor teaches the mercy of those in power, not under the protection of academic freedom or amendments. In his statement, Wales attempted to justify his dismissal by teaching McCall, who taught “contradictory content to the description of the published course.” However, the currently available description of the Texas A&M undergraduate catalog course is “Talent Writers, Genres, Texts, Movements.” This is hardly contradicted with teachers who discuss gender identity in children’s literature.
“Further justifying his decision, Wales writes, “This is not academic freedom; it is about academic liability.” Wales’ attempt to put aside Texas A&M’s binding legal obligations aside does not excuse McCall’s firing, even binding on his legal obligation to protect academic freedom.
“This is not the first time that Texas A&M leadership has ignored land laws that favor perspective-based censorship. Fires continue to fight for the First Amendment of All Americans, regardless of political views, in Texas and in our country.”
Source: Advocate.com – www.advocate.com
