SAN JOSE, Calif. — The victim of a racially charged bullying case at San Jose State University has filed a $5 million claim against the school, exposing for the first time that a dormitory resident adviser ignored an obvious early sign that “a potentially explosive and dangerous situation was developing in Room 704.”

The young black man, identified as Donald Williams Jr., plans to follow up the claim with a lawsuit if the university rejects the claim as expected, his Beverly Hills lawyer Carl E. Douglas has said.

The claim alleges breach of contract, negligence and violations of the Unruh Act by failing to provide equal housing accommodations during late summer and fall of the current school year.

Williams, then 17, was allegedly subjected to a litany of abuse by four of his white suite mates, including being called “Three-fifths,” referring to the way the government once counted blacks as just a fraction of a person. When he protested, they dubbed him “Fraction.” They outfitted the four-bedroom dormitory suite they shared with a Confederate flag. They locked him in his room. They wrote the “N-word” on a dry-erase board in the living room. They fastened a bicycle lock around his neck and told him they lost the keys, then tried it again later. Interviewed later by campus police, some of the roommates called their actions pranks.

News that the freshman was tormented relentlessly for weeks at a college that prides itself on diversity sparked community outrage, an internal investigation, an apology by the president of SJSU and the establishment of a special task force of students, residents and university employees. Four students who lived in the dormitory suite with Williams were charged with misdemeanor hate-crime and battery charges.

Until now, it appeared that the housing staff knew only about the Confederate flag  and merely counseled the student who tacked it up in his window for passersby to see to take it down.

However, Douglas asserts for the first time that resident adviser Charles May met with Williams and his other suite mates on Sept. 23 before the flag incident to try to smooth out relations between the group.

At that meeting, Williams, each of the other six roommates and the resident adviser himself all signed a “Roommate Living Agreement” that included the condition, “No bike lock of shame.” Williams himself added that condition to the agreement, a sign of his plight, the claim implies.

“Despite this clear warning of deeper, more serious issues,” Douglas wrote in his claim letter, the university failed to investigate. That led to several other “disturbing racial indignities” including that Williams was barricaded in his room by his abusers.

• MCT Campus