PENDLETON — A former custodian of Blue Mountain Community College is seeking $1 million in a lawsuit claiming the college fired her after she exposed another custodian for sexually harassing and stalking her.

Attorneys Jason Rittereiser and Carla Grabarek, with the firm HKM Employment Attorneys, filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jennifer Smutz on May 9 in Umatilla County Circuit Court.

BMCC hired Smutz in December 2016 as a custodian at its Pendleton campus. The 23-page pleading alleges the college took little to no action to stop William Eric Singlton from harassing and scaring Smutz from the spring of 2020 to March 2023.

The complaint claims Singlton on numerous occasions frightened Smutz with scary pictures in campus buildings where she worked and told her he tracked the menstrual cycles of female employees. The topics of menstrual cycles, personal habits of female employees, the sexual propensity of teenager girls and rape were “constant topics” of Singlton’s comments to other employees from 2020 to 2023.

Other employees also reported Singlton’s harassing and disturbing behaviors, according to the lawsuit, including that he kept a list of school shooters’ names, with death counts, in his work closet. Singlton also made comments during custodial team meetings about how a building on campus would be perfect for a school shooter, and a shooting would be easy for someone like him to “pull it off.”

The college administration’s response to the repeated complaints, according to the lawsuit, was to give Singlton verbal warnings.

When employees complained about Singlton displaying swastikas, the complaint claims, the administration told custodial employees to be “more mindful” of what they displayed on school property.

The lawsuit alleges Singlton installed video and audio recording devices to monitor fellow employees and vandalized coworkers’ personal property and/or college property in retaliation for people he believed wronged him. The college administration made an informal request to custodial employees to take down any recording devices because they were illegal, but the college “did not perform a substantive search for these unauthorized devices.”

Smutz’s most frightening encounter with Singlton came during her shift March 14, 2023. According to the complaint, Singlton tracked and stalked Smutz that night while she searched for her backpack. They were the only people on campus, so there were no other witnesses.

Smutz reported the stalking, and the college looked into the allegation. According to the lawsuit, Singlton said he followed Smutz that night to ensure she was locking the building.

The college afterward changed Singlton’s working hours, but on March 27, 2023, he tried to speak to Smutz on campus outside his working hours.

Smutz used her paid time off to stay away from Singlton, according to the pleading, and complained to BMCC President Mark Browning and the college board of education. Browning and the board “refused to address her complaints or take further action,” the lawsuit states.

The college on June 8, 2023, informed Smutz she would be out of job if she did not return to work by June 12 because she had no more paid time off, and there were no more avenues to address her complaints. But Smutz was too afraid of Singlton to return to work, according to the pleading, and BMCC terminated her employment.

The lawsuit seeks several remedies, including a permanent injunction against Blue Mountain retaliating against employees, a court order for the college to “create, implement and carry out policies, practices and programs” to “eradicate the effects of past and present unlawful employment practices” and monetary damages to compensate Smutz for “severe emotional distress, anguish, humiliation, anger, shame and anxiety.”

Court records show the college on May 23 received a copy of the lawsuit. BMCC has 30 days to respond.