By Matthew Acosta and Christie Counts
A Title IX report was filed against Cal Poly Pomona’s Bronco Scholars Coordinator Jesus Navarro Oct. 19, resulting in his placement on administrative leave. The allegations against Navarro involve the posting of inappropriate and lewd content on campus on a burner X account.
A whistleblower informed The Poly Post of Navarro’s alleged actions during his time at the university, after some of his posts insinuated meeting up with students on campus for sexual acts. The whistleblower also said Navarro used both Grindr and Sniffies, a mobile platform typically used for public hookups, potentially to film students or other members of the campus community.
An anonymous student source confirmed that after unknowingly contacting Navarro on Sniffies, Navarro pitched the idea of meeting for public sex along with filming the encounter.
Navarro seems to have also used TikTok to edit his content with many of his posts on X having his TikTok username, Jaiden20182 present, which is similar to the alleged burner X account that has the username, Jaiden2018.
Many of Navarro’s posts on his alleged X account contained the same language stating, “Hit me up I know all the spots,” alluding to him knowing potential hookup spots on campus.
Many of the “spots” in which Navarro photographed himself on his X account are primarily bathrooms on campus. Also, one of his posts includes a photo of himself wearing a speedo in front of the newly built CPP letters outside the student services building.
Due to privacy laws, the Director of Academic Support and Learning Services and Navarro’s direct boss Dora Lee, Interim Associate Director of Media Relations for CPP Cynthia Peters and Title IX Coordinator Dawnita Franklin were unable to comment on personnel issues.
In an email to The Poly Post, Franklin clarified that reports of employee misconduct are managed by the Office of Equity and Compliance. The OEC oversees both reports and investigations related to prohibited conduct. The investigations serve as a tool for gathering facts, shaping the basis for the university’s response.
In cases involving employees, there exists a spectrum of scenarios where the most suitable course of action may be overseen by Human Resources, irrespective of whether the OEC investigated. Franklin emphasized the university’s commitment to taking all allegations of employee misconduct seriously in the same email.
The Poly Post contacted Navarro via LinkedIn where he made what he called “the only comment” he will make on the matter.
“My only hope is that the staff and students that I worked with every day to fulfill my role know what that job meant to me and how much I valued the work I was fortunate to do,” wrote Navarro in a LinkedIn message. “While I respected the university’s investigation and fully cooperated with anything asked of me I did not agree to the investigations findings and did not receive a clear response as to how the complaint levied against me was proven true.”
Navarro’s alleged X account was created in January 2020 while Navarro was working with high school and college students at Bright Prospects in Pomona, where according to his LinkedIn profile he served as a sophomore program manager after his graduation from CPP in 2014.
All of Navarro’s posts on X occurred after Navarro left Bright Prospects and began his job with Cal Poly Pomona as the Bronco Scholars coordinator.
The Bronco Scholars Program is a summer program completed prior to the first year of college that aims to assist first-time freshmen’s preparedness for college-level mathematics and quantitative reasoning courses as well as help students improve and successfully complete their college degrees.
According to its website, Bright Prospects’ main focus as an organization is to empower low income and first-generation students within the Pomona school district throughout both their high school and college years. In response to an interview request, Bright Prospects declined to comment on previously employed individuals.
CPP recently removed Navarro’s contact page and removed his listing as the Bronco Scholars Coordinator. Along with CPP removing Navarro from all of their pages, the X account allegedly tied to Navarro has also been deleted from X and has been inactive since Oct. 30.
Feature Image Courtesy of Cal Poly Pomona
