Columbia settles with janitors forced to clean swastikas during campus riot

Two Columbia University maintenance staff workers who alleged they were held hostage by anti-Israel protesters during a riot last year and were forced to scrub swastikas have settled a complaint with the Ivy League school.

Lester Wilson and Mario Torres settled with the university for an undisclosed sum, days after Columbia announced a $220 million settlement with the Trump administration for civil rights violations and racially discriminatory practices in an effort to restore federal funding, the New York Post reported.

The settlement included $200 million over discrimination claims and another $20 million to employees who alleged they were victims of civil rights violations. 

Wilson and Torres filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which sparked a civil rights probe into the school.

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The two men are still moving ahead with a lawsuit against 40 protesters they allege held them hostage inside the school’s Hamilton Hall building. 

The pair, who have reportedly worked at the university for five years, claim they were assaulted as protesters stormed the campus building April 29, 2024. The protesters allegedly “terrorized the two men into the early morning of April 30th, assaulted and battered them, held them against their will,” the lawsuit states. 

When the janitors attempted to “defend” Hamilton Hall from the individuals, they were called “Jew-lovers,” “Jew-worker” and “Zionist.” At the time, the protesters renamed the building “Hinds Hall.”

Prior to taking over Hamilton Hall, the protesters allegedly agreed they would “intimidate, harass, bribe, threaten, and/or assault and batter such employees” who posed a threat to their plan, the lawsuit said. 

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At one point, Torres reportedly used a fire extinguisher to defend himself and was hit on the back by protesters while Wilson was shoved and had furniture pushed into him. 

“‘I’m going to get twenty guys up here to f— you up’,” one masked rioter who shoved Torres threatened, according to the complaint. 

Both custodians claimed they had sustained physical injuries and PTSD as a result of the Hamilton Hall takeover.

They have returned to work since, a source told the Post. Officers with the New York Police Department eventually cleared the building and made more than 100 arrests. 

Before the riot at Hamilton Hall, Torres was required to scrub swastikas and became upset over the feeling that Columbia failed to take aggressive action against the vandals. 

“They were so offensive, and Columbia’s inaction was so frustrating, that he eventually began throwing away chalk that had been left in the classrooms so vandals would not have anything to write with,” Torres’ complaint alleged.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Columbia and Torridon Law, the firm founded by former Attorney General William Barr, which represented the two men in their complaint against the school. 

Fox News Digital’s Adam Sabes contributed to this report.