Court Dismisses Palestinian Muslim Student Activist’s Harassment Complaint Against Northwestern Law School, But Discrimination Claim Can Go Forward
From Elagha v. Northwestern Univ., decided Tuesday by Judge Charles Kocoras (N.D. Ill.):
The following facts come from the amended complaint and are presumed true for purposes of this motion. All reasonable inferences are drawn in Elagha’s favor.
Plaintiff Yasmeen Elagha … is a Palestinian Muslim woman who wears a hijab. She graduated from Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law … in May 2024 and is currently a licensed attorney practicing in Illinois….
While a law student, Elagha was very active in Pro-Palestinian, anti-war causes and organizations on campus. On or about November 16, 2023, Elagha attended a protest. Several law students followed and recorded Elagha and the other students participating in the protest, even when asked to stop. During the protest, other members of the Northwestern community made threatening remarks about the protesters’ status at the university and their future job prospects, saying things like “we know people high up in university” and “good luck getting jobs after this.”
Following the protest, pictures and videos of the protestors were shared on social media, including one post by another law student that garnered significant attention and attracted racist and harmful comments. Elagha had her private scholarship status exposed in a tweet by a fellow law student, though it was later deleted.
After the protest, a group of students, including Elagha, met with unknown Northwestern administrators to express their safety concerns and asked the school to issue a statement to promote civility on campus and to hold students accountable for doxing and harassment. {“Doxing” … “involves releasing someone’s personal details onto the Internet in an easily accessible form … [and] [i]t may be used to humiliate, intimidate, threaten, or punish the identified individual.”} Despite assurances that Northwestern would follow up on the students’ concerns, no concrete actions were taken to address the threats or the doxing incidents. Since at least November 2022, Elagha made complaints in writing to Northwestern regarding the harassment and targeting she faced by other students, but Elagha did not receive any protections like other students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds had received.
In November 2022, Elagha filed a report with Northwestern’s Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) against fellow law student Anita Kinney after Kinney publicly stated that she was “personally gunning for” Elagha after she sent a school-wide email supporting Palestine. Elagha asked Northwestern to issue a no-contact directive against Kinney as it customarily would have done when requested by students of other races. Northwestern ignored Elagha’s request.
Since at least 2023 and 2024, Elagha made numerous complaints and warnings in writing to Northwestern that other students’ harassment and targeting put her at risk of losing career opportunities.
On or about November 16, 2023, Elagha again participated in a silent protest held on Northwestern’s campus. At this time, Elagha had recently received a job offer from the internationally recognized law firm DLA Piper as an associate in their Fall 2024 class. After the protest, fellow law student Melody Mostow falsely reported to the Northwestern University Police Department (“NUPD”) that Elagha assaulted, battered, and harassed her at the protest.
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