University assistant professor Anna Hinton was put on administrative leave with pay in mid-September after a student’s alleged complaint about an anti-pornography film shown in class.
Hinton was found to not be in breach of university policy; she resigned due to an unresolved allegation she filed Sept. 29 against her department chair.
Hinton, who was on track for tenure, taught at the university for six years. She started the fall 2025 semester teaching two sections of Gender and Sexuality in Literature, a 4000-level English class. The class’s semester concentration was Black erotics.
“I am so excited to have you here in this course where we will apply theories developed within Black Sexuality Studies to Black women’s cultural endeavors at sexual self-determination,” Hinton said in her syllabus.
Hinton also included a content warning in her syllabus, explaining the course’s content would be graphic and explicit.
“Every class period she started off saying if you need to take 10 minutes to go outside of the room for anything, you’re allowed to do that, you’re allowed to leave,” said Zoey Rushing, recent university alumna and student of Hinton’s class. “She’s very big on that.”
On Sept. 16, Hinton introduced an anti-pornography documentary for the students to watch during both days of class that week, called The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality & Relationships. The film depicts the negative effects of pornography, including violence and abuse of women. It includes imagery of explicit pornography and graphic assault scenes.
“That was the subject of the week,” Rushing said. “It was about Black porn stars, their relationship with porn, how they’re represented in porn through stereotypes and stuff like that. I admit I was a bit shocked at the content, but I was warned beforehand there was going to be pornographic imagery, so I was aware it was going to happen.”
This documentary was included in previous sessions of Hinton’s class, according to her archived syllabi.
The film was available for streaming on the university digital database, but became unavailable in early November due to a licensing error in the library catalog, the Head of Media Library Steven Guerrero said. The film is available through DVD checkout.
On the evening of Sept. 24, the university informed Hinton on a phone call after working hours that she was being placed on administrative leave with pay, pending an investigation of inappropriate materials displayed in class.
University policy regarding informal student complaints says the students should first attempt to informally reach an agreement with the employee.
On Sept. 24, Reuben Castro, an administrative coordinator for the Department of English, attempted to email students that their class on Sept. 25 was canceled, though only a few students received the email.
“We showed up for class, and there was a sign on the door that said it was canceled,” said Ellie Peacock, another student from Hinton’s class.
On Sept. 29, Castro emailed all students in the class on behalf of Nicole Smith, English department chair and professor, directing students to meet in their usual classroom at their regularly scheduled time on Sept. 30.
Hinton consulted the university chapter of the American Association of University Professors and decided to hire legal representation for the investigation. On Sept. 29, Hinton filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against Smith.
The complaint alleged that, in incidents prior to Hinton’s administrative leave, Smith continually harassed Hinton through retaliatory behavior, including escalating regular administrative procedures and speaking to her unprofessionally. The EEOC complaint was processed by the state at the same time as Hinton’s ongoing investigation.
Hinton’s tenure process, which was approved unanimously by her department, ended after Smith expressed “considerable reservations” in her letter to Albert Bimper, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and the Personnel Affairs Committee.
Smith included critiques of Hinton’s teaching that Hinton, in her complaint, claimed were false and fabricated.
The university referenced Senate Bill 412 in the investigation of Hinton’s actions, a bill that prohibits any exhibition of explicit material to minors. However, Hinton said she was uninformed of any underage students in her class and has been instructed to treat them as she would any other student.
As of the Texas Legislative special session in August 2025, SB 412 prohibits individuals from showing pornographic images to minors for any reason other than law enforcement proceedings.
According to an explanation of SB 412 from the Texas Library Association, a violation of the law only applies to harmful material that is displayed in a “reckless” manner that would offend or alarm the minor.
“[Hinton] made it clear that if anyone needed to not be there, for whatever reason — they were underage, they were personally uncomfortable with it — to put our own mental health first,” Peacock said.
Students in the class recalled about three of their classmates leaving during the film.
The University Brand Strategy and Communications department deferred the North Texas Daily’s request for open records involving Hinton’s suspension to the Texas Attorney General’s office.
The university claimed the documents cannot be made public because the information requested could relate to anticipated litigation and is confidential due to attorney client privilege. The attorney general’s office has not yet confirmed nor denied the university’s petition to withhold these documents.
The investigation took approximately two weeks, ending on Oct. 3, and Hinton confirmed she was found innocent of any wrongdoing according to the law and university policy.
After the investigation concluded, Hinton was invited to return to teaching Gender and Sexuality in Literature.
She requested that Smith and Bimper review or craft a syllabus for official approval to ensure there would be no further issues with her content. Smith and Bimper denied this request and instead offered Hinton the opportunity to exchange some of her teaching load for teaching service, such as student advising.
Bimper did not respond to the North Texas Daily’s request for comment.
Hinton returned to teaching her graduate-level courses.
Smith continued to teach Gender and Sexuality in Literature in Hinton’s place, and altered the course’s focus to gender studies in medieval literature. On Oct. 28, English professor Alex Pettit began teaching a short course on modern Black plays for the latter part of the semester.
“Everything we did before Dr. Hinton left is null and void,” Rushing said. “We had a research essay — it’s gone. I didn’t sign up to take a medieval literature class. I signed up to take a class about Black erotics.”
In November, Hinton continued to discuss her EEOC complaint with university deans. She requested to mediate a solution in writing, but was denied.
On Dec. 19, Hinton finalized her resignation, and, per the terms of her resignation, the university was not responsible for any wrongdoings.
This story was originally published by North Texas Daily, the University of North Texas' student newspaper. Read the original version here, and read more NT Daily coverage in the Denton Record-Chronicle e-edition on Thursdays.
