Providence College to Face Safety Officer’s Race Harassment Suit

The third-highest-ranking officer in Providence College’s Public Safety Department can pursue claims that a deputy chief and others made his work environment hostile because he’s Black, a federal court ruled.

The harassment allegations were timely because they identified an “anchoring act” that happened within the required time frame, US District Court for the District of Rhode Island Judge William E. Smith said.

According to John Dunbar, the deputy chief in 2021 repeated a racial slur several times when recounting an incident in which a student directed the epithet at a Black police officer, the judge said.

Most of the discrete ...