Former instructor Melissa McCoul is suing the Texas A&M System, its board of regents and university officials. A&M website

Posted inHigher Education

Fired after gender identity lesson, professor sues Texas A&M, arguing her free speech rights were violated

Melissa McCoul, arguing she was fired to appease political critics, is seeking to get her job back and other restitution.

by Jessica Priest
Feb. 4, 2026, 12:42 p.m. Central Updated Feb. 4, 2026, 3:34 p.m. Central

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Months after Texas A&M fired a professor over a gender identity lesson, she is suing the university, alleging administrators knowingly violated her free speech and due process rights to appease political critics.

In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Houston, former A&M lecturer Melissa McCoul added new details to how her firing unfolded.

McCoul’s lawsuit says Gov. Greg Abbott’s chief of staff contacted then-university President Mark A. Welsh III to press for her termination and that Provost Alan Sams was told by his supervisors not to give her a required hearing beforehand.

McCoul, who had worked for the university since 2017, said in a statement that she would never have conceived of suing a year ago, describing teaching at A&M as her “dream job.”

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