University of Oregon staffer placed on leave after telling Trump supporters to ‘go jump off of a f*cking bridge’ following landslide election victory | The Post Millennial
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University of Oregon staffer placed on leave after telling Trump supporters to ‘go jump off of a f*cking bridge’ following landslide election victory
“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*ck yourself if you voted for Donald Trump.”
A University of Oregon staffer called on Trump supporters to kill themselves in a video posted to social media Wednesday following former President Donald Trump's landslide victory against Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris on Election Day. Leonard Louis Serrato, the school's Assistant Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, shared the controversial video on his Instagram account, which has since been made private. The university said that Serrato, who has a controversial past that includes serving jail time, has been placed on administrative leave.
Describing himself as a "proudly petty person," Serrato unleashed in the video and said: "I'm done crying. My sadness is over. My anger has set it. 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*ck yourself if you voted for Donald Trump."
"If you are so sad about your groceries being expensive, get a f*cking better paying job," he continued. "Do better in life. Get a f*cking education. Do something, cause you are f*cking stupid. And I hope that you go jump off of a f*cking bridge."
A spokesperson for the University of Oregon had first defended Serrato in a statement issued to the school's newspaper The Daily Emerald, and said at the time: "At this time, it appears that the individual made the post on their own time, which is well within their rights."
However, the university's legislative official confirmed with Oregon state Rep. Ed Diehl in a Thursday email that Serrato has now been placed on administrative leave pending further investigation. "The video is absolutely abhorrent and against our values. The employee is on admin leave while an investigation takes place on the matter," the university official said.
In Sept. 2014, Serrato was sentenced to 90 days in jail for his role in the hazing death of an 18-year-old fraternity pledge at Fresno State University in 2012, court documents show. Serrato, who was an undergraduate student and 30 years old at the time, had purchased the alcohol for the hazing event and forced pledge Phillip Dhanens to drink dozens of shots. Dhanens was found dead with a 0.4 BAC as a result of the hazing incident.
Serrato was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years of probation, and a judge also ordered him to complete 90 days in an adult work offender program.
Leonard Serrato is the University of Oregon's Assistant Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life. Courtesy: University of Oregon
Following his release from jail, Serrato became an assistant advisor for fraternity and sorority life at Fresno State. He turned into an anti-hazing crusader and used his background to speak at universities across the nation. The year that Serrato was hired by the University of Oregon is not specified on the university's website.
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