LAW OFFICES OF KAREN D.

HURVITZ
3 4 T A NG L E WOOD D R I V E
C O NC O R D , MA 0 1 7 4 2
( 6 1 7 ) 5 1 3 - 3 3 6 5
HURVITZLAW@COMCAST.NET

November 24, 2019

Débora D. Ferreira
Executive Director, Equal Opportunity Office /Title IX Coordinator
equalopportunity@admin.umass.edu

Patricia Cardoso-Erase
Associate Dean of Students for Conduct and Compliance
pcardoso@umass.edu.

Denise Barton, Deputy General Counsel

UMass Amherst
dbarton@umassp.edu

Dear Mmes. Ferreira, Cardoso-Erase, and Barton;

This office represents Louis Shenker, a current student at the University of

Massachusetts, Amherst (“the University”). In recent days, Louis has suffered unlawful
discrimination, harassment, stalking, and retaliation from students and faculty on the
University campus, resulting in continuing adverse effects and a hostile environment that
has forced him off campus and into hiding out of concerns for his safety.

At a November 12, 2019 University campus event, ironically titled “Criminalizing

Dissent,” Mr. Shenker exercised rights guaranteed to him by law to dissent from the
event’s controversial message, which University Chancellor Subbaswamy had himself
criticized as anti-Semitic. As a consequence of exercising these rights, Mr. Shenker was
discriminated against, harassed, stalked, and retaliated against based on his religion
and/or his political belief or affiliation, in violation of the University’s Affirmative
Action and Non-Discrimination Policy, as well as the University’s Policy on
Discrimination, Harassment, and Related Interpersonal Violence.

Most seriously, Louis’s English writing instructor, Beth Peller, has filed repeated false
police reports against Louis, fraudulently obtaining a restraining order against him,
having him arrested, and causing him to spend two nights in jail. In addition, Ms. Peller
sent emails out to students that repeated her false claims about Louis. These emails were
then followed by further messages from the English department, with more false claims
about Louis. Students who attend English writing classes are being told that Louis is
threatening the writing program and therefore the classroom doors have to be locked
from now on.

On Sunday night, November 17, 2019, posters were printed at a copy machine at the
University library and posted around campus. They drew a lot of attention; they were
photographed and sent out on Instagram with texts advising the recipients to watch out
for Louis and to "smack the dogshit out of him." Here is one of them:

An article by "an anonymous contributor" defaming Louis was then posted on the
internet, reporting that students are “organizing” against him, and that “flyers went up
around campus alerting the community to his presence, and some of the things he has
said.”

The campaign against Louis constitutes illegal discrimination, harassment, stalking, and
retaliation, initiated by Ms. Peller and/or carried out with Ms. Peller’s complicity. The
campaign attacks Louis based on his Jewish religion and conservative political beliefs.
The campaign is based entirely on fabrications and threatens Louis' safety by explicitly
inciting violence against him. Ms. Peller and her accomplices’ intent is clear: Create
enough adverse effects and a sufficiently hostile environment to drive Louis off campus,
ruin his life by giving him a criminal record, and dissuade other Jews and political
conservatives at the University from exercising rights guaranteed to them by law and
University policy.

Louis is preparing to file a formal complaint based on the University’s grievance process,
demanding that the University investigate discrimination, complicity, and retaliation
against him by Ms. Peller and other University students and faculty. Meanwhile, I
demand that:

2
 1. All videos from campus cameras from the night of November 17 starting at 5
p.m. and continuing to November 18 at 7 a.m. be preserved and made
available to me;*
2. All videos from cameras at the library with views to the library entrance/exit
from the night of November 17 starting at 5 p.m. and continuing to November
18 at 7 a.m. be preserved and made available to me;
3. All videos from cameras at the library with views of the library copy machines
from the night of November 17 starting at 5 p.m. and continuing to November
18 at 7 a.m. be preserved and made available to me;
4. All logs of use of the copiers, together with identifying information of the
users and the numbers of copies made at the library from the night of
November 17 starting at 5 p.m. and continuing to November 18 at 7 a.m. be
preserved and made available to me;
5. All emails sent from Beth Peller and from the English department from
November 18 to the present be preserved and made available to me;
6. The English department and in particular Beth Peller be instructed not to send
any more emails on this subject.

*The categories of information requested are exempt from FERPA because they fall
under the exception for:
• Student ID number, user ID, or other unique personal identifier used to
communicate in electronic systems but only if the identifier cannot be used to
gain access to education records except when used in conjunction with one or
more factors that authenticate the user’s identity, such as a PIN, password, or
other factor known or possessed only by the authorized user
• A student ID number or other unique personal identifier that is displayed on a
student ID badge, but only if the identifier cannot be used to gain access to
education records except when used in conjunction with one or more factors that
authenticate the user's identity, such as a PIN, password, or other factor known or
possessed only by the authorized user.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Karen Hurvitz

cc: Louis Shenker