She was fired for teaching English literature in an English class. Now she’s suing.
South Florida State College Professor Vinita Prabhakar.
SEBRING, Fla., July 29, 2026 — In a story stranger than fiction, a Florida college fired an English professor for nothing more than teaching literature in a literatureclass.
After professor Vinita Prabhakar assigned a commonly-taught short story for her freshman English course, South Florida State College President Fred Hawkins dragged Prabhakar into a meeting, complained the story was “political,” and ordered her to stop teaching it.
A day later, he unceremoniously fired her. No hearing. No due process.
“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,” said Prabhakar. “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.”
Now, represented by FIRE Legal Network Member Gary Edinger of Benjamin, Aaronson, Edinger & Patanzo and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Prabhakar is filing a federal lawsuit against Hawkins and the South Florida State College board of trustees seeking to vindicate her First Amendment rights.
“President Hawkins firing a professor for teaching a work of literature isn’t just a betrayal of every principle that a university is supposed to embrace,” said Edinger. “As a state employee, he also trampled over our client’s constitutional rights. The First Amendment doesn’t let public officials suppress ideas by firing the people who teach them.”
