3 Women File Suit Against Harvard, Allege University Ignored Sexual Harassment

Three female graduate students at Harvard University filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday accusing the Ivy League school of ignoring numerous complaints about sexual harassment from a renowned professor there and allowing the educator to intimidate students by threatening to deter their careers.

“The message sent by Harvard’s actions alleged in the complaint is clear: students should shut up. It is the price to pay for a degree,” Russell Kornblith, an attorney from Sanford Heisler Sharp, the accusers’ law firm, said in a statement.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston alleges that African and African American studies professor John Comaroff subjected the women to repeated forcible kissing and groping as early as 2017.

One of the accusers Lilia Kilburn, alleges that on one occasion that year when she met with Comaroff to discuss her plans to study in an African country. Comaroff allegedly told her she could be subjected to violence there because she was in a same-sex relationship.

Through a statement provided by his lawyers, Comaroff, who is not named as a defendant in the suit, “categorically denies ever harassing or retaliating against any student.”

The other two plaintiffs said when they reported Comaroff’s behavior to university officials, he retaliated against them by threatening to derail their careers.

The women lodged complaints with Harvard’s Office for Dispute Resolution in July 2020 alleging that the school violated Title IX, the federal law that bars gender discrimination in education.