Public Safety Officer at PC Files Federal Lawsuit Alleging Racism and Civil Rights Violations
GoLocalProv News Team
Public Safety Officer at PC Files Federal Lawsuit Alleging Racism and Civil Rights Violations
On June 26, John Dunbar, who is being represented by attorney V. Edward Formisano, filed the 11-page complaint in U.S. District Court.
It marks the latest action for Dunbar, who in April 2022 was joined by over 100 faculty, students and supporters to protest what he said had been the racially motivated harassment he had endured during decades on the job.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“There is no excuse for PC’s shortsightedness and its failure to act decisively over the years,” wrote Theodore Haig, PC ’70 and Vincent Marzullo, PC ’70, in an opinion piece for GoLocal the following month.
About Suit
According to the federal lawsuit filed last week, Dunbar, who is African-American, was hired by PC as a Public Safety Officer in 1991 — and is now the second highest-ranking officer in the department.
“While employed with [at Providence College], the [College’s] employees and/or agents subjected the Plaintiff to workplace discrimination on the basis of his race and color and retaliated against him for complaining about his discriminatory work environment,” Dunbar alleges in the lawsuit.
Dunbar says he first brought his concerns to the former Director of Public Safety in 2015, and that PC hired an outside firm to conduct an external review and make recommendations.
“In 2017, the [Dunbar] was formally promoted to Lieutenant. At this time, several of the Plaintiff’s coworkers expressed their beliefs to him that he was only promoted due to his race,” claims Dunbar in the lawsuit. “For example, Sergeant Jarvis verbally harassed the Plaintiff by accusing him of starting a rumor that he supposedly spit in the Plaintiff’s face.”
According to the lawsuit, in November 2019, Dunbar “took a medical leave of absence due to the stress and anxiety caused from the discriminatory work environment at Defendant.”
“In March, 2020, the [Dunbar] returned to work from his medical leave of absence. In the summer of 2020, the [Dunbar] reported to his superiors that a group of students were using social media to spread awareness about their negative encounters with Defendant’s Public Safety Department,” according to the lawsuit.
Reported Incidents on Campus
Dunbar says that on October 12, 2020, he was called to respond to a situation where a student was acting erratically.
“The [Dunbar] was the first African-American officer to arrive at the scene. When he arrived, and several times throughout the encounter, the student called him a “n***er.” During this encounter, the student also bit a Caucasian Public Safety Officer, who reported to the scene. The Plaintiff recorded the entire encounter on his cell phone and sent the video recording to Deputy Chief Croce,” according to the lawsuit. “After watching the video recording, Deputy Chief Croce failed and/or refused to comment on the student’s language towards the Plaintiff. Rather, Deputy Chief Croce was concerned with the Caucasian officer’s injury.”
In November 2020, Dunbar said he took another medical leave of absence “due to the stress and anxiety caused by the discriminatory work environment at Defendant” and returned to work in March 2021.
Dunbar says that on January 6, 2022, he shared his continued concerns about the department with Jacqueline Peterson, an Advisor to the Defendant’s President as to Institutional Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, that Deputy Chief Croce was regularly hiring Caucasian employees within the Public Safety Department.
According to Dunbar, as the only African-American male in the Department, he had been ostracized…and “ousted from the chain of command,” and his “job responsibilities of investigating off-campus incidents have also been eliminated.”
“The Plaintiff has also been excluded from participating in campus events that he is normally involved with, such as Early Admitted Students Day and Commencement,” states the lawsuit. “The discrimination and harassment the Plaintiff has experienced is due to his race and color and is offensive, severe and/or pervasive and has deprived him of the right to work in a non-discriminatory work environment.”
Dunbar is suing on three counts — unlawful discrimination and retaliation in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; unlawful discrimination in violation of the Rhode Island Fair Employment Practices Act, and unlawful discrimination in violation of the Rhode Island Civil Rights Act of 1990.
He is seeking a declaratory judgment that PC “unlawfully discriminated” against him - and that he be awarded backpay, compensatory, and punitive damages.
PC did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.