Education Department investigating Harvard after complaint from Palestinian students and allies
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has opened a formal investigation into a civil rights complaint filed last week accusing Harvard of failure to protect Palestinian students and allies from targeted racism and harassment.
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has opened a formal investigation into a civil rights complaint filed last week accusing Harvard of failure to protect Palestinian students and allies from targeted racism and harassment.
The complaint, filed by the Muslim Legal Fund on behalf of more than a dozen students, alleges the university failed to protect them “from harassment, intimidation and threats based solely on their status as Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and supporters of Palestinian rights,” the legal fund said in a news release. It says the students have been subject to “doxxing, stalking and assault."
"Students who reported the harassment to Harvard administrators received slow and ineffective responses and often met with closed doors, and in some cases threats to limit or retract their future academic opportunities," the group said.
The school is also under investigation by the Education Department over claims of antisemitism on campus. That investigation was launched late last year.
In a statement Tuesday, the Muslim Legal Fund included an account from an unnamed Palestinian student who described harassment on campus as "shocking, terrifying and outrageous."
Rating: 5