Three graduate students filed a lawsuit against Harvard University on Tuesday, claiming the school ignored sexual harassment allegations against a renowned professor for years.
Lilia Kilburn, Margaret Czerwienski, and Amulya Mandava allege John Comaroff, an anthropology and African American studies professor, kissed and groped students without consent and threatened to derail their careers if they reported his behavior to school administrators. They’re asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to grant them a declaratory judgment nullifying Harvard’s procedures, a permanent injunction against the institution, and an award of compensatory and punitive damages, among other relief.
“Professor Comaroff and his enablers have destroyed the educational opportunities and careers of countless students,” the women allege in the case.
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Upon learning of Comaroff’s misconduct, Harvard acted “in bad faith, in that the purpose behind Harvard’s practices and policies was to facilitate the evasion of Harvard’s obligations to address sexual misconduct and discrimination associated with Professor Comaroff,” the filing says.
“Harvard deliberately refused to investigate informal complaints of harassment against professors in the Anthropology Department, knowing full well that few, if any, students would file formal complaints with ODR and that ODR investigations rarely result in sanctions against professors,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiffs have been damaged by Harvard’s breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.”
Comaroff spoke inappropriately to his students, “repeatedly described various ways in which Ms. Kilburn would be raped and killed in South Africa—approximately 3,000 miles away from Central Africa—because she is in a same-sex relationship,” the lawsuit alleges.
The professor “categorically denies ever harassing or retaliating against any student,” according to a statement by his lawyers shared with Reuters.
The decision of 38 faculty members to sign a public letter that “minimized Professor Comaroff’s abuse” was evidence the university wanted “students who experience harassment [to] shut up,” the filing continues.
The women said they filed three separate complaints against Comaroff to school administrators in July 2020, claiming the professor violated Title IX, the federal law that bans gender-based discrimination at educational institutions.
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Harvard placed Comaroff on administrative leave in August 2020, with Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Claudine Gay saying sexual harassment “constitutes a form of discrimination that is both personally damaging for those who experience it and is an assault on our faculty’s fundamental commitments to equity and academic excellence.”
Students at other universities have made similar filings against school employees. Nearly two dozen students at Liberty University allege they were raped, sexually assaulted, drugged, or abused on campus while those in power refused to act. Parties in that case are attempting to reach an “amicable resolution.”