- A petition has been started asking Hunter College to fire Matthew Lasner, an associate professor of urban studies
- There are already over 8,000 signatures
- His husband Dan Goldstein accosted Ivanka Trump on a plane last weekend while she was sitting with her children
- Goldstein told Ivanka her father was 'ruining the country' and demanded to know why she was not flying private
- Lasner, later tweeted: 'My husband expressed his displeasure in a calm tone, JetBlue staff overheard, and they kicked us off'
- However one hour before that he wrote on Twitter: 'Ivanka and Jared at JFK T5, flying commercial. My husband chasing them down to harass them'
A petition is calling for the New York university that employs the urban studies professor whose husband accosted Ivanka Trump on a plane last week to fire the man from his job.
Over 8,000 people have signed a Change.org petition asking Hunter College to remove Matthew Lasner from his position in the administration for his 'immature and cruel harassment of Ivanka Trump and her family at JFK airport.'
The petition was created by the group Right Wing Millennials.
'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,' reads the petition.
'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.'
According to his biography on the Hunter College website, Lasner 'studies the history and theory of the U.S. built environment, with particular focus on housing, and the relationship between housing patterns and urban and suburban form.'
He earned a PhD in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, a MS in urban and regional planning studies from the London School of Economics and his BA in urban studies at Columbia.
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Demand: A petition has been started asking Hunter College to fire Matthew Lasner (left), an associate professor of urban studies whose husband Dan Goldstein (right) accosted Ivanka Trump
Harrassment: Goldstein told Ivanka her father was 'ruining the country' and demanded to know why she was not flying private (Ivanka above on the flight)
Lasner and his husband Dan Goldstein were thrown off of a JetBlue flight from New York to San Francisco last Thursday when Goldstein approached the future first daughter and started shouting at her.
While holding a child in his arms Goldstein, 35, asked out loud: 'Why is she on our flight. She should be flying private.'
Ivanka paid as little attention as possible and tried to occupy her children with some crayons to diffuse the situation until the crew escorted him off the plane.
Lasner said that was not what happened however on Twitter, writing: 'My husband expressed his displeasure in a calm tone, JetBlue staff overheard, and they kicked us off the plane.'But just an hour prior to that Lasner wrote on Twitter: 'Ivanka and Jared at JFK T5, flying commercial. My husband chasing them down to harass them. #banalityofevil'
Lasner has been very vocal about his distaste for Trump on Twitter, writing shortly after the election about marching against the President-elect.
There are already over 5,000 signatures
He also posted a video when he marched in Chicago with the hashtags '#notmypresident' and '#weslay.'
And he posted a photo on Instagram of himself with one of his protest signs, which read: 'RESIST! Autocracy. RISE UP!'
Lasner also retweeted a man who wrote on Twitter: 'Dear @IvankaTrump + @JaredKushner, there are swastikas being painted across America by people who support your father. PLEASE SAY SOMETHING.'
Just before they took off, Lassner also took a photo of Ivanka sitting on the plane writing that they were kicked off for 'expressing displeasure about flying w/ Trumps.'
And while Goldstein was happy to go after Ivanka ,and Lasner was eager to defend his actions, neither of the men confronted Ivanka's husband Jared Kushner, who was right next to her on the flight standing in the aisle the entire time.
The plane was still boarding when the incident occurred, so the crew was able to get the two men and their child off the flight and avoid any further incident.
Goldstein began saying to the crew as they escorted him off the plane: 'You're kicking me off for expressing my opinion?!!'
It was after they were off the plane that Lasner then posted his tweets defending his husband and the photo of Ivanka sitting in her seat.
Those tweets were then deleted in less than an hour. An hour after that Lasner deleted his entire account.
JetBlue released a statement on Thursday morning saying: 'The decision to remove a customer from a flight is not taken lightly. If the crew determines that a customer is causing a conflict on the aircraft, the customer will be asked to deplane, especially if the crew feels the situation runs the risk of escalation during flight.'
It was then noted that Lasner and Goldsten were placed on the next available flight.
Members of Secret Service were on the flight with the family, but did not intervene and instead chose to let the airline handle the issue.
Explanation: Lasner, later tweeted: 'My husband expressed his displeasure in a calm tone, JetBlue staff overheard, and they kicked us off'
Different story: However one hour before that he wrote on Twitter: 'Ivanka and Jared at JFK T5, flying commercial. My husband chasing them down to harass them'
There was a third account of what happened as well from Marc Scheff, the man who was sat in front of Ivanka and with his young son and seemed to be minding his own business when Lasner snapped his photo.
He wrote: 'He didn't accost her directly. When he got on and saw her, sitting behind me, he said "oh my god. This is a nightmare" and was visibly shaking.
'He said, "They ruin the country now they ruin our flight!" (Context: Boarding and therefore the flight was delayed because they needed to get on first through some other way)
'He did not yell. He was also not what I would describe as calm. Agitated maybe. His husband behind him was very calm. His son is adorable and sharply dressed.
'When the JetBlue staff went back to speak to the man I overheard Ivanka say to them "I don't want to make this a thing." My assessment is that she was happy to let the man take his seat. Security made a different call.'
Scheff later wrote: 'Honestly, if I was her security I would have made the same call. I don't _think_ the man was capable of violence, sure. But I would worry that he would leave his seat or cause a scene in some way.
'And his husband had tweeted that he planned on doing that. So, again you know my politics, but I would have made the same call here.'
Scheff later added about Ivanka: 'She handled the situation calmly and with class.'
The artist is married to actress Olivia Wilde's sister Chloe. Wilde was a vocal supporter of Clinton and opponent of Trump both before and after the election.
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