Paul Nungesser, the alleged rapist of Emma Sulkowicz — who has been walking around Columbia with a mattress to protest the school's lack of action against Nungesser — is suing Columbia for failing "to protect him from a 'harassment campaign' by Sulkowicz."
Nungesser is suing the school's board of trustees, president and the professor that allowed Sulkowicz to write her thesis on the mattress-carrying protest. The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, reads, "Columbia University's effective sponsorship of the gender-based harassment and defamation of Paul resulted in an intimidating, hostile, demeaning...learning and living environment." The popularity of Sulkowicz's protest, which was picked up by The New York Times and New York Magazine, has also been damaging to Nungesser's reputation and job prospects.
Columbia had no comment on the lawsuit. Sulkowicz described it as absurd. "It's ridiculous that he would read [the mattress protest] as a 'bullying strategy,' especially given his continued public attempts to smear my reputation, when really it's just an artistic expression of the personal trauma I've experienced at Columbia," she said.
Read the full story at the Washington Post.
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