Judge calls out university for making Jewish students hide in a ‘proverbial attic,’ allows lawsuit to proceed
A New York judge called out a university in New York for its lack of action amid increasing antisemitism while denying its motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Jewish students.
The judge said that Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, a small private four-year college located in Lower Manhattan, must face charges for neglecting to help Jewish students who had to lock themselves in a library during an anti-Israel rally on Oct. 25, 2023.
“Title VI places responsibility on colleges and universities to protect their Jewish students from harassment, not on those students to hide themselves away in a proverbial attic or attempt to escape from a place they have a right to be,” US District Judge John Cronan wrote Wednesday in the opinion.
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An anti-Israel protest moved through Cooper Union in New York City in October 2023, as Jewish students remained in the library, which was reportedly locked for their safety. (Credit: Taylor Roslyn Lent)
“The physically threatening or humiliating conduct that the Complaint alleges Jewish students in the library experienced ‘is entirely outside the ambit of the free speech clause,’ … and was objectively severe,” Cronan wrote.
Cronan added, “The Court is dismayed by Cooper Union’s suggestion that the Jewish students should have hidden upstairs or left the building, or that locking the library doors was enough to discharge its obligations under Title VI.”
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination over race, color, and national origin for any activity or program receiving federal funding.
He also pointed out that the New York state laws “provide comparable—if not greater—protections against discriminatory harassment in education than Title VI.”
CHANTS ‘CALLING FOR THE MURDER OF JEWS’ WERE SHOUTED AT ME DURING COOPER UNION PROTEST, STUDENT RECALLS
A Cooper Union spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital, “We are a college dedicated to being a welcoming and safe place of learning for all students. Since October 2023, reports on social media and in the news have cited inaccurate information, mischaracterizing the circumstances and our dedication to our students. Cooper Union never suggested that students should hide, nor as the evidence will show, were the library doors locked. Rather, Cooper Union offered students options of support, including the ability to leave safely.”
Harvard was sued for “antisemitism cancer” on its campus, “damaging” its Jewish students. (Getty)
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Multiple universities have faced lawsuits over anti-Israel protests on their campuses since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
In January, Harvard University settled two lawsuits it was in alleging the university had “an unbearable educational environment” and disregarded “severe and pervasive anti-Semitism on campus.”
On July 9, 2024, New York University settled a lawsuit also pertaining to protests also sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack.
U.S. President Donald Trump shows his signature on an executive order in Washington, U.S. January 20, 2025. (REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli)
President Donald Trump issued an executive order last week that it “shall be the policy of the United States to combat anti-Semitism vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.”
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