Columbia Under Fire: Feds Investigate Janitors’ Claims Amid Antisemitism Protests

According to the New York Post, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating Columbia University. Two janitors claimed that the school retaliated against them because they had accused protestors as antisemitic.

Lester Wilson, Mario Torres, and others accused the school last year of retaliatory harassment for reporting “antisemitic or racist conduct” by students during their pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Bill Barr, former Attorney General, whose firm represents Wilson and Torres in a Post stated, “We are pleased that the EEOC has opened an investigation into Mario and Lester’s claims of discrimination.”

“Columbia is under a moral and legal obligation to protect civil rights for its employees and students.” He added, “Columbia must be held responsible when it fails to protect the civil rights of its students and employees.”

Wilson, according to the complaint, saw the swastikas on Hamilton Hall where the protests were held shortly after they took place, and found them “deeply distressing.” He told his supervisors about the graffiti and they instructed him to remove it.

Wilson and Torres claim they were forced to remove dozens of swastikas, but campus security told them that “the vandals and trespassers were exercising their First Amendment Rights” and “nothing could have been done.”

The complaint says that Torres, his supervisor, was upset by the actions of Columbia. “They were offensive and Columbia’s inaction so frustrating that he finally began throwing out chalk that was left in the classes so vandals wouldn’t have anything to use,” it states.

The EEOC is a federal agency responsible for enforcing civil rights laws at work. Columbia University has declined to comment on the complaint or investigation by the EEOC.