University Of Southern California Sues Two Men Over Series Of Frightening YouTube Pranks

The University of Southern California (USC) is suing two men over a series of pranks they’ve staged at USC and then recorded for their YouTube channels according to the Los Angeles Times.

The two men are Ernest Kanevsky and Yuguo Bai. Neither apparently is a USC student. Last Friday, a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge issued a temporary restraining order that bans the pair from campus and other university buildings because of the stunts, which court documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times, describe as causing ‘terror and disruption.”

The most recent incident took place on March 29, when according to the Daily Trojan, Kanevsky entered a Jewish Studies class in Mark Taper Hall during a lecture on the Holocaust. Dressed up like a member of the “Russian Mafia,” Kanevsky then asked Bai, who was already seated in the room, if there was a “Hugo Boss” — the fashion designer who made Nazi uniforms during World War II — in the class. Bai claimed he was Boss. Kanevsky then told Bai his father owed him $50,000, while a voice on Kanevsky’s phone shouted out obscentities.

At that point, panicky students in the class fled the building, attempting – according to the lawsuit – to escape from “what reasonably appeared to them as a credible threat of imminent classroom violence.” After the stunt, Kanevsky and Bai were arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department.

Last September, Kanevsky and Bai, and a third person, not been named in the lawsuit, entered a data sciences lecture and informed the instructor that Kanevsky’s father owned the school and that he had come to “supervise.” The three took the instructor from the room, complaining that his class was “boring” and that he was “dangerous.” They then told the students the professor had been“taken care of” and began lecturing them about the benefits of marijuana.

According to the Daily Trojan reporting, “the perpetrators fled before the Department of Public Safety arrived at the classroom. After the incident, the professor requested for a DPS officer to accompany him to classes for several weeks.”

Another incident, which took place in November, also in Mark Taper Hall, involved the two men storming into a classroom dressed as characters from the TV show “Squid Game,” at which point they faked a kidnapping with two other individuals, as Bai yelled, “If they catch me, my family will die!”

According to the lawsuit, Kanevsky and Bail got the ideas for their pranks from their YouTube channel subscribers who dared them to stage the incidents.

USC’s lawyers allege that the conduct “amounts to both a public and private nuisance” and that it has caused [USC] students to experience emotional distress and genuine fear for their personal well-being, and has resulted in ongoing concern among community members regarding overall safety” at the school.

Whether Kanevsky and Bai, who have yet to make public comments about the suit, had legal representation was not clear on Monday. Up to 10 other unidentified associates of the pair are also included in the university’s allegations.

Along with the restraining order, USC is seeking compensatory damages for an unspecified amount, in addition to attorneys’ fees and other related costs. The temporary restraining order also bars Kanevsky and Bai from making more online postings about the USC pranks.

In a statement, university officials said “the court order granting a temporary restraining order underscores the need to provide a sense of stability and comfort in an in-person learning environment and in light of nationwide campus security concerns on college campuses. The court’s decision should be taken as a warning that such behavior will not be tolerated by these individuals or others.”

A preliminary injunction hearing has been set for April 28.