Texas A&M University will not reinstate a lecturer who was fired in the fall after a video of her teaching about gender identity in a children’s literature class went viral, despite a faculty appeals panel unanimously concluding that her dismissal was not justified.
The New York Times first reported Wednesday that interim Texas A&M president Tommy Williams deferred the decision to the university system, and that James Hallmark, the system’s vice chancellor for academic affairs, wrote in a Dec. 19 memo that Melissa McCoul’s termination in September was supported by “good cause.” He did not explain his reasoning.
McCoul’s attorney, Amanda Reichek, confirmed to The Texas Tribune that this sequence of events occurred.
