Online Petition For University To Fire Professor Involved In Harassing Ivanka Trump On Flight Signed By Thousands

An online petition is calling for a New York University professor to be fired because his husband heckled Ivanka Trump on a flight.

According to the Daily Mail, the petition, which has garnered over 5,000 signatures, is asking Hunter College to remove Matthew Lasner from his urban studies position because of his “immature and cruel harassment of Ivanka Trump and her family at JFK airport.” The online petition was started by a group known as the Right Wing Millennials.

Professor Matt Lasner and his husband, Dan Goldstein, were booted off a JetBlue flight to San Francisco after Goldstein ranted about the future 45th president to his daughter, Ivanka, in the presence of her family. Goldstein had complained about the president-elect’s policies and how it was ruining the country. When they were bounced off the flight by the flight crew, Lasner tweeted about the incident, claiming that Goldstein had expressed his views calmly and that the crew overacted by telling them to get off the plane.

“My husband expressed his displeasure in a calm tone. JeffBlue staff overheard, and they kicked us off the plane.”

Sources on the plane said Goldstein had approached the future first daughter and started shouting at her with his own child in his arms. According to the source, the 35-year-old man queried why Ivanka was on a commercial flight. Ivanka Trump had ignored him, busying her children with crayons to ease the tension, until crew members escorted Goldstein and Lasner off the plane.

The plane had not yet taken off, so the men and their child were asked to get off before the incident escalated. It was then that the New York professor posted tweets defending his husband and a picture of Ivanka seated on the plane. There were members of the Secret Service protecting the family, but they chose not to intervene, preferring instead to let the crew handle the issue. Goldstein and Lasner were put on the next available flight.

An hour prior to the flight, Lasner had noticed the Trump family and tweeted about it, saying that his husband was on the verge of harassing Ivanka. The professor has always had a penchant for expressing his distaste for the president-elect on social media. When Trump won the November elections, he tweeted about marching against the future president, using the hashtags #notmypresident and #weslay.

The petition accuses Lasner of being economical with the truth and harassing a mother in the presence of her children. According to the group, it showed that the professor was not fit to hold his esteemed position at the university.

“Someone like Mr. Lasner, who would harass a mother and her child simply trying to go about their day, does not deserve the honor of teaching. The fact that he tried to cover up and change the story around to avoid the consequences of his actions is also a testament to his character. He is NOT a good example for our youth.”

In a statement, the airline company said it was their sole decision to remove the men from the flight after they determined one of them was causing a commotion on the flight.

“The decision to remove a customer from a flight is not taken lightly. If the crew determines that a customer is causing conflict on the aircraft, the customers will be asked to deplane especially if the crew feels the situation runs the risk of escalation during flight.”

A man on the flight had his own account of what happened. The man, Marc Scheff, who sat at the back of Ivanka, admitted that Goldstein did not yell but was a little agitated. According to him, Ivanka handled the situation with calm and class, as she just wanted Goldstein to return to his seat. Scheff said the airline preferred to make a different call.

[Featured Image by John Locher/AP Images]