Mohammad Jadun, a former Center for Student Progress employee at Youngstown State University, filed a lawsuit against YSU on Tuesday claiming his job was terminated because he is Muslim.
Jadun was employed as the Intervention Coordinator at CSP and alleged that his supervisor, Becky Varian, discriminated against him due to his religion, which caused him to lose his job.
The lawsuit states that on Dec. 2, 2015, a Muslim man committed an act of terrorism, killing and injuring multiple people and on Dec. 9, 2015, Varian asked Jadun to come to a meeting in her office.
He alleged that while in her office she said, “You Muslims are terrorists and are killing Christians and Jews.”
A performance review was conducted by Varian in January 2016. According to the lawsuit, the review included “unsatisfactory findings for job knowledge, planning, administration, communication and professional development.”
The case stated that he was required to comply with a performance plan between June and August 2016 which Varian developed.
Jadun alleged that he did not receive complaints from YSU or Varian in 2015 and that students had positive reviews for him in 2015 and 2016.
He also claimed he was unfairly assigned to work all of the time slots at a YSU student resource fair without a second coordinator, which was unusual.
The lawsuit states that in the summer of 2016, students were contacted by Varian about Jadun’s performance. No other coordinator’s students were contacted.
Jadun alleged that the claims made by Michael Reagle, the former Associate Vice President for Student Services, and Varian brought unwarranted complaints to the YSU Human Resources Department.
He was then placed on leave and terminated from his position at the CSP, according to the lawsuit.
Jadun then filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming he faced discrimination. The EEOC found there was “no cause” and the case was closed.
Jadun stated in the lawsuit that he “exhausted the administrative remedies available to him and received a Dismissal and Notice of Rights letter October 23, 2017.”
He has asked for a trial by jury and did not file the lawsuit with a lawyer.
YSU has not filed a response to the lawsuit at this time. The lawsuit charges YSU, Becky Varian and Michael Reagle.
Ron Cole, YSU’s public information officer, said the university does not have a comment at this time.
