A former Loyola Marymount University resident assistant who says a supervisor's racially charged comments and mockery pushed her into a psychiatric hospitalization is now fighting to keep her lawsuit against the university alive. LMU's attorneys filed court papers on August 6 asking a Los Angeles judge to throw out the case before it ever reaches a jury, arguing that Jonnae Serrano cannot back up her claims with hard evidence.
Serrano, now 25, enrolled at LMU in 2021 and worked as a resident assistant at Palm South Residences, a LEED-certified residence hall on the university's West Los Angeles campus that opened in 2020, according to court documents cited by MyNewsLA.com. She alleges her supervisor made a string of racially inappropriate comments during her time on the job, including telling her she did not have to go above and beyond as a Black woman, calling himself an “old white man,” and using phrases like “you people,” “your people” and “folks like you.” Serrano also claims he mocked the cleanliness of her room and remarked that Black people's curls were “meant to hold keys and secrets.”
According to the same court filings, Serrano was placed on medical leave in October 2022 and was hospitalized that same month. She contends the alleged harassment damaged her mental health, her grades, and her ability to participate in campus life. Her lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on November 14, 2024 under case number 24STCV30050, brings claims of racial harassment and discrimination, retaliation, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
University Says It Investigated and Fired the Supervisor
LMU's attorneys maintain the university timely investigated and resolved Serrano's complaints against her supervisor. Per the same court filings, an internal LMU investigation found the supervisor had violated university policy, and the school's lawyers state he was subsequently terminated. LMU administrators reportedly advised Serrano to seek therapy or other resources for managing interpersonal relationships, an approach her suit argues fell short of ensuring she could safely return to her job. Serrano alleges LMU instead allowed her supervisor to remain on campus after the internal investigation concluded, though the university's court papers state he was ultimately fired.
LMU's lawyers argue Serrano's whistleblower and discrimination claims rest on unsupported allegations. The university's attorneys reported that during her deposition, Serrano could not identify the factual basis for many of her claims and could not name a specific class in which her grades suffered because of her supervisor's conduct. Serrano, for her part, testified that she obtained As and Bs and maintained good grades for the remainder of her enrollment at LMU.
A Presidential Citation Complicates LMU's Argument
That deposition testimony sits awkwardly alongside LMU's own recognition of Serrano's academic record. The university selected Serrano as a recipient of its 2024 Presidential Citation, an honor the university president confers on graduating seniors nominated by faculty and administration for outstanding academic performance, leadership, and service, according to Loyola Marymount University's own announcement of the honorees. That award undercuts any suggestion that her college performance or campus involvement went unnoticed.
The case now heads toward a pivotal hearing. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge C. Virginia Keeny is scheduled to hear LMU's dismissal request on November 3, 2026. Keeny was appointed to the bench in 2012 after working as a senior trial attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Los Angeles, where she litigated federal civil rights and employment discrimination cases, according to the City of Los Angeles.
A Steep Legal Standard for Dismissal
Under California Code of Civil Procedure Section 437c, a judge may only grant summary judgment if the moving party proves there is no triable issue as to any material fact — meaning the motion must be denied if Serrano can show even a single genuinely disputed material fact, per Justia Law. Her whistleblower retaliation claims are also shaped by the California Supreme Court's 2022 ruling in Lawson v. PPG Architectural Finishes, which holds that an employee needs only show whistleblowing was a “contributing factor” in an adverse employment action, shifting the burden to the employer to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the action would have happened anyway, according to Morgan Lewis.
Separately, under California's Fair Employment and Housing Act, codified at Government Code Section 12940, employers face strict liability for workplace racial harassment committed by supervisors and carry an affirmative statutory duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment and retaliation, per 1000Attorneys.com. Those standards will frame how Judge Keeny weighs LMU's argument that its internal investigation and termination of the supervisor satisfied its legal obligations.
Part of a Broader Pattern at LMU
Serrano's lawsuit lands amid other recent friction between LMU and members of its campus community. In July, LMU and USC were named in a federal civil rights complaint over a summer leadership program restricted to Hispanic students. In March, non-tenure-track faculty and student allies staged campus protests after LMU cut off contract negotiations with their SEIU union by invoking a religious exemption from federal labor law jurisdiction. Black or African American students make up roughly 7.7% to 7.9% of LMU's enrollment of more than 10,000 students, according to federal higher education data compiled by Data USA.
