Jewish Ex-Employee Sued Pomona College, Former Bosses for $1 Million

Clocktower and dorms at Pomona College.

Pomona College was back in the national spotlight this summer after reporting in the New York Post and Daily Mail surfaced a lawsuit filed against the College by a former employee, Melody DiDonato, in 2025. The suit alleges that Pomona discriminated against her on the basis of her disability and Jewish faith and subjected her to a hostile work environment. An amended complaint was filed in May 2026.

DiDonato worked for the College’s IT department until May 2025, when she resigned “due to her extreme emotional distress, including PTSD,” which she claims was induced by the conduct of her supervisors and protests on campus.

In the initial complaint filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court on June 9, 2025, DiDonato sought $1 million in damages from Pomona College, Vice President of Technology José Rodriguez, Assistant Vice President of Technology Joseph Brennan, and 10 other unnamed individuals. 

The complaint listed several causes of action, including disability harassment, national origin harassment, retaliation, failure to prevent discrimination, constructive termination, and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. An amended complaint, filed in early May of this year, extended the causes of action to also include failure to provide reasonable accommodation; failure to engage in the interactive process; national origin, race, and religious discrimination; and disability discrimination. 

“Pomona College vigorously denies these allegations and will continue to defend its position before the court,” a Pomona spokesperson told the Independent. “All forms of discrimination and harassment, including antisemitism, are antithetical to Pomona College’s core values and have no place on our campus.”

In the complaint, DiDonato alleges that while working as an executive assistant to Rodriguez in 2022, he asked her to attend a loud work event one week prior to a scheduled surgery for her perforated ear drum. After missing the event, Rodriguez gave her a verbal write-up. By DiDonato’s account, she contacted the Human Resources Department, which failed to follow up on her complaint. She then contacted Rodriguez directly, who said “he did not have time to speak with her.”

In a later incident, DiDonato alleges she was written up again by Rodriguez for failing to do her mandatory weekly COVID-19 testing, despite having his permission to forgo them due to her surgery. Some time after making another complaint to the Human Resources Department, she was told that her position as executive assistant would be eliminated and that she would be reassigned as a procurement analyst under Joseph Brennan. 

Despite previous assurances from Brennan and Rodriguez that her work schedule would remain the same, which allowed for remote work on Fridays, Brennan allegedly told her that she would have to work in person on Fridays.

From October 2023 to June 2024, DiDonato made various complaints about her safety and working conditions to her supervisors regarding the student protests over the war in Gaza. 

In November 2023, during which protesters occupied Alexander Hall, “[DiDonato], as Jewish-American female, felt very threatened and unsafe on campus and in the presence of protestors,” the complaint reads. “She feared walking on campus in the event she would run into one of the violent protestors.”

After protesters occupied Alexander Hall and President Gabi Starr’s office on April 6, the complaint states that Pomona College sent an email on April 15 to employees allowing them to work from home. However, DiDonato was told by Brennan that she would have to work in person to check-in equipment, despite her wish to work remotely. The suit alleges that other non-Jewish staffers were permitted to work from home. 

DiDonato claims that Brennan acknowledged the danger posed by protesters in the spring of 2024, saying that they were “very violent and shoved old people.” According to the complaint, he also made statements criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which made DiDonato “feel uncomfortable and unaccepted due to her national origin.” Rodriguez also shared a post on Slack titled “Welcome to the Apartheid State.”

“The antisemitic rhetoric portrayed by Defendant Pomona College by and through the comments made by its staff and the lack of concern for the safety of Plaintiff exacerbated Plaintiff’s emotional distress,” the suit says.

After these incidents, DiDonato contacted the Human Resources Department again, “complaining about her mental health and PTSD from the violent protesting and antisemitism she was exposed to on the college campus” as well as the comments made by Brennan, which she felt targeted by.

DiDonato also alleged that she was excluded from accessing Livesafe, the campus emergency alert system, and complained to Brennan about her lack of access, only being added after she followed up with the IT department “numerous times.” 

In a final incident, DiDonato bought the wrong iPad for a faculty member. When she offered to fix this by buying the correct iPad, Brennan told her not to. She was allegedly then written up after the faculty member complained.

In June 2024, DiDonato went on medical leave, resigning from her position one month later.

Pomona College denied “each and every allegation" in its formal response to DiDonato’s complaint. A non-jury trial is scheduled for Jan. 4, 2027.

DiDonato’s lawyer declined to comment. Employees in Pomona’s IT department did not respond to a request for comment. Rodriguez, Brennan and the College’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.