The 40 students in the class fled, some tripping over chairs as they ran from “what reasonably appeared to them as a credible threat of impending violence in the classroom,” the lawsuit said.
“I was at the door and I started running outside,” a student, Avery Kotler, told Annenberg Media, which covered the stunt. “Everyone just left in a panic,” the student said.
In another incident, on Nov. 12, the two men burst into a classroom dressed as characters from “Squid Game,” the violent Netflix series, according to the lawsuit. The men staged a fake kidnapping involving two other associates not named in the lawsuit, the filing said.
Mr Bai asked the professor for help, saying that “a bunch of people with guns” were chasing him, the lawsuit said.
At one point, according to court documents, Mr. Kanevsky and another person chased Mr. Bai into class as he yelled, “If they catch me, my family will die!” Before the incident, the fourth staff member, who was not dressed up, had entered the classroom to make a video of the prank.
In the lawsuit, university lawyers said the men’s behavior is “both a public and private nuisance,” adding that “it has caused students to experience emotional distress and genuine fear for their personal well-being” on campus. .
mr. Kanevsky has 111,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel and Mr. Bai has about 3,000 on his channel. Both channels feature videos of pranks on the beach, in gyms, and in stores.