A University of Oregon staffer has been suspended for posting a video calling for Donald Trump supporters to commit suicide.
Leonard Serrato, the Assistant Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life at the school, was put on leave by the taxpayer-funded college Thursday over the ‘abhorrent’ Instagram story shared in the wake of the presidential election results.
In the clip, Serrato said he was ‘done crying’ and his ‘anger has set in’, and said he was a ‘proudly petty person’ going after Trump-supporting acquaintances.
‘I’m saying this in the most disrespectful way possible – I don’t care if you are my family, I don’t care if you are my friend, I don’t care if we’ve been friends our entire lives – You can literally go f**k yourself if you voted for Donald Trump,’ he said.
‘If you are so sad about your groceries being expensive, get a f*****g better paying job. Do better in life. Get a f****g education. Do something, cause you’re f*****g stupid and I hope you go jump off a f*****g bridge.’
Leonard Serrato, Assistant Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life at the University of Oregon, has been placed on administrative leave after sharing a shocking response to Donald Trump’s landslide presidential election win
After Serrato’s video circulated widely on social media, the University of Oregon placed the staffer on administrative leave and said it was ‘investigating’ the clip.
‘The University of Oregon finds the statements made in the video abhorrent and not in alignment with our values or mission,’ the school said in a statement.
‘We appreciate the conflict between his statements, his role in Student Life at the University, and our institutional values. This individual has been placed on administrative leave.
‘We opened an investigation and are reviewing the matter under university policies and the individual’s role as a public employee.
‘We counseled the individual and requested and confirmed that the post is down. As a public university we take our duty seriously to provide an environment that welcomes diversity of thought and respect in alignment with our education mission.
‘While we investigate, we are providing support for concerned students and employees, including resources for mental and emotional health.’
The UO staffer said: ‘If you are so sad about your groceries being expensive, get a f*****g better paying job. Do better in life. Get a f****g education. Do something, cause you’re f*****g stupid’
A spokesperson for the university previously downplayed Serrato’s rant and said it ‘appears that the individual made the post on their own time, which is well within their rights.’
It was later revealed that Serrato did jail time in connection to the hazing death of an 18-year old fraternity pledge at Fresno State University.
Serrato was an undergraduate student in 2012 when he was involved in Philip Dhanens’s alcohol-related death.
Police said Serrato and others egged Dhanens to drink dozens of shots. He had a 0.4 alcohol level when he died.
Serrato was one of the people who purchased the alcohol.
The 18-year-old had only been at college two weeks when he took part in a drinking binge at a off-campus fraternity house.
Serrato’s lawyer at the time told ABC the incident ‘had a huge effect on a number of people including Mr. Serrato and his family.’
The lawyer added: ‘[Serrato] is very remorseful that this young man, passed away at such an early age from this type of tragedy and he accepts responsibility for his actions and we’ll move forward from here.’
Serrato did jail time in connection to the hazing death of an 18-year old fraternity pledge at Fresno State University. He’s pictured at his sentencing hearing in 2012
Philip Dhanens, pictured, died in 2012 after a fatal hazing incident that Serrato was later jailed for
Serrato was just one of many who issued questionable messages following Trump’s landslide electoral win
Serrato went on to work at Fresno State as an assistant advisor of fraternity and sorority life.
He then became an activist against hazing, using his experience to make speeches in colleges around the country.
Serrato was far from alone in issuing an inflammatory response to Trump’s landslide electoral win.
Laura Helmuth, the editor-in-chief of Scientific American, the oldest magazine in the nation, went on a rampage against Trump supporters in now-deleted posts on social media, calling them fascists, racists and sexists.
‘I apologize to younger voters that my Gen X is so full of f*****g fascists,’ Helmuth wrote on the social media site Bluesky.
She also wrote: ‘Solidarity to everybody whose meanest, dumbest, most bigoted high-school classmates are celebrating early results because f**k them to the moon and back.’
Helmuth then went after her own home state: ‘Every four years I remember why I left Indiana (where I grew up) and remember why I respect the people who stayed and are trying to make it less racist and sexist.
‘The moral arc of the universe isn’t going to bend itself.’
