Prabhakar v. Hawkins, et al.

College classrooms should expose students to challenging ideas, not shield them from discomfort. That’s why the First Amendment protects the academic freedom of professors at public colleges and prevents administrators from dictating which viewpoints may be taught. Despite this protection, South Florida State College fired Professor Vinita Prabhakar simply because the president disagreed with a story she assigned.  

An English professor for nearly two decades, Vinita Prabhakar joined South Florida State College’s faculty in 2023. In spring 2026, she assigned Ottessa Moshfegh’s award-winning short story “Bettering Myself” in Freshman English II. Vinita had taught the story for nearly a decade as part of a lesson on unsympathetic and unreliable narrators, alongside works by Ernest Hemingway and Raymond Carver.

One student told Vinita the story made her uncomfortable. Vinita discussed the reading with the student and the class. Afterward, the student said she felt better about the assignment and understood that college sometimes requires engaging with challenging material.

But South Florida State College President Fred Hawkins learned about the assignment and summoned Vinita to a meeting. Vinita explained why the story belonged in the course, and the chair of the English department, the dean of arts and sciences, and the college’s vice president supported her. Hawkins nevertheless called the situation “political.” He then ordered Vinita to stop teaching the story, saying he did not want his college-aged daughter to read it.

The next day, the college placed Vinita on administrative leave and effectively told her that she would be terminated. When Vinita asked why, the head of human resources told her that “the president has the final say.”

At a public college, however, the First Amendment has the final say. College administrators may set curricula and require professors to teach relevant material. But they cannot fire a professor because they dislike the ideas expressed in a work of literature that plainly belongs in her course. Punishing Vinita chills not only her teaching, but the work of every professor who might avoid challenging material rather than risk an administrator’s displeasure.

Now, Vinita is standing up for her First Amendment rights and the academic freedom of professors nationwide. On July 29, 2026, FIRE Legal Network member Gary Edinger of Benjamin, Aaronson, Edinger & Patanzo and FIRE filed a federal lawsuit against Hawkins and the South Florida State College District Board of Trustees. The lawsuit seeks Vinita’s reinstatement, damages, and a declaration that public college officials cannot punish professors for teaching viewpoints they dislike.