An English professor in Florida says that she was fired from her job for teaching a short story by Ottessa Moshfegh, The New York Times reports.
Vinita Prabhakar, who taught at South Florida State College, is suing the president of the school and the members of its board of trustees, claiming they violated her First Amendment rights and the state’s Campus Free Expression Act. In the suit, Prabhakar is asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to reinstate her employment at the college and award her compensatory damages.
Prabhakar said that she has taught Moshfegh’s story “Bettering Myself,” collected in the 2017 book, Homesick for Another World, for almost a decade. The story is narrated by a Catholic school math teacher who abuses alcohol and cocaine and discusses her sex life with her students.
According to the lawsuit, one of Prabhakar’s students told the professor via email that the subject matter of “Bettering Myself” made her uncomfortable. After a classroom discussion about the story, the student said that she understood she would “have to get used to” reading things that made her uncomfortable.
Later, an unknown professor or administrator registered a complaint about the assignment. According to Prabhakar’s lawsuit, the college’s president, Fred Hawkins, intervened and told Prabhakar, “I don’t ever want to see this story again.” The next day, as described in the lawsuit, Prabhakar was suspended and told that her contract would not be renewed.
In a statement given through the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which is representing Prabhakar in the lawsuit, the professor said, “For 20 years, I’ve taught students how to engage with stories that excite them, challenge them, and broaden their experience of what it means to be human. I don’t plan on stopping now. If what happened to me becomes the norm, colleges across America will become less curious, less vibrant, and less free.”
Neither Hawkins nor other school officials immediately responded to the Times’ request for comment.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
