“Most people have had anal sex. Don’t look so surprised.” Those two sentences, spoken by a heavy-drinking, drug-using high school teacher to her students in a short story, never caused professor Vinita Prabhakar any trouble. She’s been teaching it for nearly a decade.
But in February, a staff member apparently complained about the assignment, and the story was forwarded to South Florida State College (SFSC) president Fred Hawkins, a Republican former Florida House member who is an ally of Governor Ron DeSantis. “I don’t ever want to see this story again,” Prabhakar said she was told by Hawkins, adding that he wouldn’t want his college-age daughter reading it. The college president also said the story was “political.” The next day, she was suspended and told that her contract wouldn’t be renewed.
On Wednesday, Prabhakar sued SFSC and Hawkins in federal court. She alleges that what happened violates Florida’s Campus Free Expression Act, signed into law by DeSantis in 2021. The law says that state colleges in Florida “may not shield students, faculty, or staff from expressive activities” and protects “faculty lectures, writings, and commentary.” Prabhakar is seeking to get her old job back, as well as compensatory and punitive damages, and is being represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). Hawkins and SFSC could not be reached for comment.
The short story “Bettering Myself” by Ottessa Moshfegh is certainly racy but not expressly political, and Prabhakar says that she taught it for three years at SFSC before the spring semester class that led to her removal from the classroom. But the lawsuit is yet another collision between free speech and DeSantis’ campaign to excise concepts of sexism and racism from the curricula of public schools, including higher-education institutions. In early July, a federal appeals court struck down the higher-ed provisions of one of DeSantis’ weapons in that fight—the Stop W.O.K.E. Act, signed into law by the governor in 2022.
