A former Kutztown University student is suing the university for allegedly failing to stop racism and bigotry on campus.
Cassidy Pyser filed a federal lawsuit last week claiming that her ex-roommate sent her racist and anti-Semitic messages and, as a cafeteria worker, refused to serve her, according to the Morning Call. Pyser, who is Jewish, alleged that the harassment escalated to the point where her ex-roommate broke her mezuza, a Jewish religious object.
Pyser enrolled at Kutztown, located in Pennsylvania, in 2015, but she dropped out in 2017 before the start of her junior year because of the harassment she faced and the university’s failure to protect her. Pyser says she complained about the abuse to her residence hall director and campus police, but university officials took no action.
Screenshots of messages show Pyser’s roommate sending her racist pictures such as a Klansman guarding watermelons with the caption: “How to protect your watermelon farm.” The lawsuit also says that when white supremacists began circulating neo-Nazi propaganda around campus in 2017, the university failed to notify students in a timely manner.
Kutztown spokesman Matt Santos said the university “rejects all forms of racism, sexism, bigotry, and discrimination.” He also pointed to the Bias Response Task Force the university created in 2017 to handle cases of bias such as hate speech. Santos did not comment on the lawsuit itself.
