Second-generation Italian immigrant claims university retaliated when he filed regulatory complaints. Law professor foresees “potentially embarrassing inquiries.”
Pennsylvania State University officials allegedly pressured a white English professor to grade students according to their race and retaliated against him for filing racial harassment and bias complaints stemming from its enforcement of “antiracism,” prompting him to quit.
The state-related institution was not only “deliberately indifferent to the racially hostile environment” for Zack de Piero, but “actively treated De Piero as the problem, suggesting mental health treatment and disciplining him for bullying when he dared to complain,” according to de Piero’s lawsuit, which alleges violations of Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, First Amendment and Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.
The second-generation Italian immigrant was alarmed by the “race-essentialism focus” soon after arriving at Penn State’s Abington campus in suburban Philadelphia in 2018, “which he feared would be harmful to his students, a majority of which were from minority backgrounds and ethnicities,” according to the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, which is sponsoring the suit.
“If this case goes to discovery, Penn State could face potentially embarrassing inquiries, including emails and depositions” to test de Piero’s “blunt to the point of badgering” allegations, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wrote.
Penn State spokesperson Lisa Powers told Just the News twice the university “does not generally comment on pending litigation.”
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