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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An African-American teenager who authorities say was the target of racial hazing on a California university campus last fall filed a claim for $5 million in damages against the school on Monday, his attorney said.

Officials with San Jose State University failed to protect the teen from racist pranks and remarks by white students with whom he shared a dormitory suite, according to the claim filed internally through the university system by attorney Carl E. Douglas.

"When there can be this level of bullying at San Jose State University, a bastion of progressive thought, that should be a bellwether for everyone nationwide," Douglas told Reuters.

"I want there to be a conversation started by the filing of this claim... there are issues of racial intolerance, of bullying and of harassment running rampant in universities and colleges across this nation," he said.

University spokeswoman Patricia Harris declined to comment on the claim, which named as defendants the university, its president Mohammad Qayoumi, a school housing adviser and others.

Authorities said four white roommates taunted the student, who was 17 at the time, by displaying Nazi imagery and a Confederate flag.

The roommates, also students, referred to him as "three-fifths" or "fraction," the claim said, in an apparent slur relating to the fact African American slaves counted as only three fifths of a person under an 18th century agreement between U.S. states to determine state population sizes.

The roommates barricaded him in his room, and threatened him with a golf club when they tried to locate a missing pet goldfish, the claim said. The harassment lasted from at least September 23 to October 31, 2013, it said.

Douglas said he planned to sue the university if it rejected the claim, filed with the California State University Office of Risk Management.

At least one school employee, an African American student housing assistant, appeared to know about the bullying more than a month before the teen's parents complained to campus officials and put an end to it, the claim said.

By failing to provide the teen with equal housing and investigate the bullying sooner, the university and its employees violated his civil rights and breached multiple contracts he had with the school, the claim said.

Three of the teen's former roommates, Colin Warren, 18, Joseph Bomgardner, 19, and Logan Beaschler, 18, face misdemeanor hate crime and battery charges in connection with allegations of tormenting the teen..

They have all pleaded not guilty at Santa Clara County Superior Court and remain suspended from the school. A fourth defendant is a minor, and details about his case have not been made public.

After reports of the weeks-long harassment came to light in November, students staged campus protests, and a leader with National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called for the accused boys to be charged with felony hate crimes. The matter is under investigation by the Department of Justice as a hate crime.

The school's president has apologized and launched multiple investigations, and a university-appointed task force led by a retired superior court judge is set to make recommendations next month about policies and procedures relating to the incident. The university has agreed to an undisclosed settlement which is under consideration by the the teen's attorney.

Proof racism is a live an well.

Sharpton, Jackson, Obama...

Racism is wrong regardless of the source of direction. These days, no one group is more guilty than the other.

Don't take up sides with your group, just chill and condemn the racists.

Sorry for feeding a troll.

Don't take up sides with your group, just chill and condemn the racists.

I take it you're excluding our black leaders from that condemnation?

Yes, racism is bad all around. Black racism is bad. White racism is bad.

You know a racist by their language and their positions. It is quite evident here on this board. Then they try to say that they are not racist, not against the poor, not against equal opportunity, not against women, not against equal access. Just don't let women make choices about their own bodies and health. Don't let Mexican and minorities vote. Don't let the disadvantaged get remedial opportunities. Don't let the workers speak and negotiate with power equal to the owners/managers. Force unnecessary medical procedures on women. Don't allow democracy. Don't allow the rights of minorities. Don't allow equal access to common law marriage contracts.

Funny how it's all the same people who always fight against equality and freedom. education and access, voting rights and unions. self determination, force extreme fundamentalist religion into the science class, force extreme fundamentalist religion into government, keep science out of government, support the entitlements and special privileges of the wealthy, etc., etc., etc. Tax the poor and give to the wealthy.

It is quite evident that Bilbo is obsessed with race and spends all the time calling others racists.

People who do that, like Sharpton and Jeremiah Wright (whom Obama listened to for 20 years when no sane person would have listened to him 20 minutes), are racists.

Nope, just here where you reveal yourselves so clearly.

Now who started this topic? A where did the little wannabee faux point.

Nuf said. Proved my point.

It is quite evident that Bilbo is obsessed with race and spends all the time calling others racists.

People who do that, like Sharpton and Jeremiah Wright (whom Obama listened to for 20 years when no sane person would have listened to him 20 minutes), are racists.