A Florida English professor is suing the president of South Florida State College, alleging she was fired for assigning a profane literary story that the president deemed “political,” according to a federal lawsuit. The case centers on professor Vinita Prabhakar’s assignment of Ottessa Moshfegh’s “Bettering Myself,” a story narrated by a fictional teacher who discusses sex with students. The lawsuit says the professor had taught the work for nearly a decade without issue until a student expressed mild discomfort in February. The president, Fred Hawkins, allegedly objected on grounds that he would not want his college-age daughter reading the material. Prabhakar says the decision effectively punished classroom speech and academic judgment. For higher education leaders and general counsel, the suit signals renewed litigation exposure around faculty autonomy, extramural speech boundaries, and institutional responses to content complaints.