Students Accuse Chemistry Professor of Inappropriate Touching

A student at Washington University in St. Louis says she wanted extra help in her organic chemistry class this fall. She and her professor, Jonathan Barnes, decided to meet in his office early one October Friday evening.

“It started out normal,” the student wrote in a Title IX complaint provided to Inside Higher Ed, which she said she filed Dec. 2. “There were a few light touches on my upper back, but I didn’t think much of it. The thought of an educator touching me inappropriately never crossed my mind as a serious concern.”

But her concern grew, she wrote, as Barnes got “increasingly bold.” At one point, she said she got dry erase marker ink on her backside, which he pointed out and “glanced down at my butt for an uncomfortably long period of time.” She was wearing a dress, she said, and at another point she felt something twice brush her upper thigh when she was writing on the board and the professor was behind her.

“I didn’t think much of it,” she wrote. “But, he apologized for ‘checking his phone since he had grants due.’ I assume his phone was touching the back part of my upper thigh. I am worried he has pictures of me.”

Her complaint includes a screenshot of text messages the student said she sent a friend during a break in the meeting. One says, “Barnes is eeally [sic] touchy.”

The student told her friend that Barnes put his hands on her waist, gave her a shoulder massage and said he liked her delts, according to the texts.

“Maybe he’s just touchy … like am I just freaking?” she asked—to which the friend replied, “Please make a Title IX report, this is serious.” At the end of the meeting, the student said, Barnes hugged her.

“I don’t think he should be allowed to teach,” the student told Inside Higher Ed. She spoke on condition of anonymity. She said her grades had steeply declined because she feared going back to Barnes for more help.

Barnes isn't currently teaching, his lawyer says. Christopher Combs said the university has removed his client from teaching classes. Last month, Combs said that was just temporary for the fall semester as part of “standard procedure to ensure all parties feel safe and supported during this process” and that Barnes’s “research and committee work continues as normal.”

But on Wednesday, Combs told Inside Higher Ed that the university had expanded the suspension from teaching through the spring semester and was “just trying to get him to quit at this point.” (A university spokesperson responded to Inside Higher Ed’s request for an interview and written questions with an email saying, “We do not comment or provide details about personnel matters” and “generally speaking, we take allegations of sexual harassment very seriously and will investigate any reports that are submitted.”)

Barnes, a tenured associate professor, isn’t just facing allegations from one student. On Nov. 20, the Washington University Student Life newspaper published four students’ allegations of “non-consensual touching from Barnes on the arms, lower back and upper thigh.”

One unnamed student told Student Life that she felt she “really couldn’t do much” about the alleged touching “because I was in his office, and I really felt this power dynamic. I can’t say anything, because he’s my professor. He does everything with my grade.” She said Barnes offered afterward to write her a medical school recommendation letter—making her feel like he was “trying to get me to shut up,” the newspaper reported.

But another student, also speaking to Student Life, said she struggled with how to feel about Barnes allegedly touching her on her upper back and shoulder at their initial meeting. She told the newspaper, “It was more of a stranger thing than what I would call sexual harassment.”

In a statement, Barnes called the claims in the student newspaper and online “false and grossly exaggerated.” He does admit to giving pats on the back in his statement.

“My mentorship style combines the encouragement of an athletic coach with the care of a parent—uplifting students’ spirits and reminding them of their intelligence, talent and capacity to overcome obstacles both in the classroom and beyond,” Barnes wrote. “This includes gestures like high-fives, fist bumps or a pat on the shoulder or back, as these have always been meant as encouragement or support, especially when a student is struggling or upset … That said, if any of my interactions ever made a student feel uncomfortable, I am truly mortified and deeply sorry.”

Responding to Barnes’s statement, the student who spoke with Inside Higher Ed said, “He’s not my father. He’s not allowed to touch me in certain ways.”

Meanwhile, Barnes and Combs are complaining that these allegations have been made public. Combs said he hadn’t even received the Title IX complaint from the university as of Wednesday.

Trial by Media?

On Nov. 10, a group called Me Too, Wash U. posted on Instagram about a “chemistry prof HARASSING students.” It didn’t name the professor, but it shared allegations about him and provided resources, such as information on how to file a Title IX report.

The group did name Barnes in a Nov. 14 post, sharing what appears to be an undated email from the Chemistry Department chair to the organic chemistry class students saying they would have a new instructor for the rest of the semester. Then came the student newspaper article on Nov. 20.

“I have not been formally notified of any specific allegations by the university or afforded the opportunity to address them through proper channels,” Barnes wrote in his statement, which Combs provided late last month.

“I have not been informed of any formal investigation into these allegations,” Barnes said. “I have already been lambasted on social media without having any formal allegations to respond to. No matter if a formal complaint is ever brought against me, I have already been judged guilty in the court of social media. I will not be able to receive a fair and unbiased investigation.”

Combs said he had asked the university not to let the student newspaper article run and to find out who was behind the Instagram posts and take them down, too. “Zero due process, I mean, zero—we have not received a formal complaint and they’ve just let this social media and newspaper stuff just fester,” Combs told Inside Higher Ed Wednesday. Combs said, “This is the most bogus Title IX I’ve ever seen.”

“They’re going to permanently disrupt his career and it’s effectively amounting to a termination without due process and we haven’t even gotten a complaint,” Combs said.