Morgan student accuses guard of sexual harassment

A Morgan State University student accused a security guard of sexual harassment in a viral video posted Thursday and said a staff member, to whom she turned for help, dismissed her claim.

Sya McKay, a 23-year-old political science major from Columbia, shared a nearly six-minute video on social media from her car Thursday about two hours after the incident, recounting how the security guard, a man she described as being in his 60s, said she had nice legs and told her he wanted to take her out and get to know her better.

Her TikTok video has gained more than 1.3 million views as of Saturday afternoon.

“I am advocating for change. I want justice. I was violated and discriminated against by the higher-ups at my school,’ McKay said in an interview with The Sun. “I want to be vindicated in this instance because I’ve never experienced something like that and I’m paying to attend this university.”

McKay said the office of school president David Wilson reached out to set up a meeting on Monday.

In a statement, Morgan State said it is investigating the incident.

“The alleged improper behaviors described in the video do not represent Morgan’s core values, and the matter is currently being thoroughly investigated,” the statement read. “The safety and well-being of the members of our community is and will continue to be a top priority. Should any member of the Morgan community need assistance, we encourage them to engage with available resources, including the Counseling Center, Title IX, and MSUPD.”

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights investigated Morgan State for its handling of a 2014 sexual assault. Last spring the student newspaper, The Spokesman, conducted a poll on social media that found 91% of students do not know how to report sexual assault on campus anonymously.

McKay said she attempted to share her story with a political science department staff member, who said she would call the department chair about the incident. McKay said she did not think the staff member was aware that she could overhear the call that was made.

“I heard her say on the call ‘I have a student in here, and she is claiming the security guard has been making sexual advances at her, but I know him and I’ve known him and I don’t believe he did any of that’,” McKay said.

McKay said she then confronted the staff member about the call.

“I asked ‘are you insinuating that I’m lying?’,” McKay said on the video. “She was like ‘well um no, I’m just saying I don’t believe he would do that because he’s worked here for a while’.”

McKay said most of the more than 9,000 comments on the video are from other women and girls sharing similar experiences.

McKay also said this wasn’t the first time the security guard had commented on her appearance.

“The more I ignored it, the more it was happening,” McKay said.

McKay said she lives off campus and balances being a full-time student with social media influencing, modeling and acting. She has more than 75,000 followers on TikTok and another 24,000 on Instagram.