Professor Jonathan Barnes was temporarily relieved of his teaching duties after multiple students alleged that he touched them inappropriately in one-on-one meetings at his office in Bryan Hall. (Anna Calvo | Staff Photographer)

Editor’s note: This article contains discussion of sexual violence. Resources and helplines can be found at the bottom of the piece.

Amidst allegations of inappropriate, non-consensual touching from multiple students, Associate Professor of Chemistry Jonathan Barnes is no longer teaching his section of organic chemistry for the rest of the semester, as of Nov. 14. 

Student Life spoke to four students who allegedly experienced non-consensual touching from Barnes on the arms, lower back, and upper thigh. Three of the students are currently enrolled in Barnes’ organic chemistry class, and one took the same course two years ago. Barnes has taught the class three times prior to the Fall 2024 semester since his hiring in 2016. 

Three of the four students have been granted anonymity due to concerns for their safety. Sources referred to throughout the article exclusively by their first name have been given pseudonyms to protect their identities. 

According to Barnes’ attorney, Christopher Combs, Barnes was temporarily relieved of teaching duties, following University policy, in order to “ensure all parties feel safe and supported,” but Barnes is still employed by the University and is continuing to carry out his research with students. Neither the University nor the Chemistry Department wished to comment on why Barnes, who was given tenure last year, is not teaching the organic chemistry course anymore. 

Allegations against Barnes were brought into the public sphere after a Nov. 10 Instagram post from MeToo WashU — a sexual assault survivor advocacy account — said an unnamed chemistry professor was harassing students. They omitted the name to avoid legal backlash. 

When Maya, a sophomore currently enrolled in Barnes’ organic chemistry class, saw the post, she began to get anxious. Every detail sounded exactly like what had happened to her when she met with Barnes in his office two separate times on Oct. 29 and 30. Maya thought someone had leaked her story, but the next day in class, she heard people talking about the post. 

“People were like, ‘Oh, did you see this post?’” she said. “Then some girl who I don’t even know said, ‘Oh, yeah, this happened to me.’ Then the girl behind her was like, ‘Yeah, that happened to me, too.’ And then the girl right next to her said it too.”

Also sitting in class that day was sophomore Sabrina Huang, who had spent the past few weeks slowly losing her motivation to do coursework. 

Huang said that, after the semester began, she received emails from Barnes after every quiz and exam, either congratulating her or offering help — all of the emails said that Huang could meet with Barnes if needed. Huang initially believed that everyone in the class was receiving these emails, but later learned that multiple of her friends were not.

Huang said that Barnes touched her inappropriately during a meeting in his office on Oct. 11. 

She remembers standing at a whiteboard in his office, writing out chemistry equations, when she began to feel his hands on her upper arms. She felt unable to move. 

“I think he got emboldened, so his hands started traveling further down, almost on my lower back,” Huang said. “Then I felt something touch the back of my thigh.”

Huang said that Barnes also made comments about her muscles while touching her upper arms, and grabbed her hands two separate times to comment on her nails and her rings. 

At the end of their meeting, Huang said that Barnes walked over to give her a hug. She left Bryan Hall that day feeling shocked and scared. 

“It was so hard to sit in that lecture hall and listen to this man talk about organic chemistry while knowing he’s done all of that stuff to me, to a few other people,” Huang said. “It’s just infuriating.”

In that same office, just over two weeks later, Maya left Barnes’ office experiencing similar emotions. What started as a normal meeting about a test became uncomfortable as Barnes allegedly placed his hand on Maya’s lower back multiple times. She also remembers Barnes making a comment about the brand of jeans she was wearing. 

The following day, she went to his general office hours, where other students were in attendance. 

Maya said that as she was leaving, Barnes asked if she had finished reviewing a specific exam question — she hadn’t — and then asked if she had a spare moment to look over it. Maya said that when she walked into his office, he told her to close the door, whereas the day before, it had been open. 

Once she was in the office, Maya said she was working on a problem at the whiteboard when Barnes touched her thigh. 

“Eventually, he touched my lower leg, right below my butt, which was very uncomfortable,” Maya said. “I really couldn’t do much because I was in his office, and I really felt this power dynamic. I can’t say anything, because he’s my professor. He does everything with my grade.”

Eventually, she asked Barnes what he was doing while his hand was on her leg, and he told her that he thought there was something on her leg, pointing to the strings on her denim shorts. Maya said Barnes also asked her if her shorts were the same brand as the jeans she had worn the day before. 

A week after their second encounter in his office, Maya said she was leaving class when Barnes pulled her aside and began to “profusely apologize.”

“He was very emotional,” she said. “He said he had been losing sleep over [their encounter] over the past weekend. He said he didn’t want me to take it the wrong way, and he realized how bad it looked.” 

Maya felt cornered and unsure how to respond as he talked to her. She said he went on to talk about how many of his students love him, and mentioned that he has written a number of letters of recommendation for students applying to medical school. She said that he then offered to write her one if she ever needed it. 

“I was like, ‘Cool, he’s trying to get me to shut up,’” she said. “That’s kind of what it felt like.”

In a statement provided to Student Life by Combs, Barnes’ representing attorney, Barnes wrote that any allegations of inappropriate conduct are false. Additionally, Combs wrote that Barnes not teaching for the rest of the semester was “not a reflection of any decisions made about the matter, just how the university handles these situations.”

Combs told Student Life that Barnes cannot respond to additional questions about specific allegations made by students because there are currently no formal Title IX complaints against him. 

Jessica Kennedy, Director & Title IX Coordinator, said that her office is unable to comment on any specific cases. Combs said that Kennedy told him there have been no formal Title IX complaints filed against Barnes. Kennedy did not confirm nor deny this statement. 

Both Huang and Maya say that they plan to file a Title IX complaint but have not completed the paperwork yet. 

In Barnes’ statement, he wrote that, in order to be accessible to all of his students, he frequently meets with students one-on-one to discuss exam performance. He described his mentorship style as one that “combines the encouragement of an athletic coach with the care of a parent.” 

“This includes gestures like high-fives, fist bumps, or a pat on the shoulder or back, as these have always been meant as encouragement or support, especially when a student is struggling or upset,” Barnes wrote.

Barnes asked for privacy and restraint from speculation until facts have been established through appropriate processes. He also wrote that he gets joy from seeing students succeed and would not want to make them upset.  

“I take a personal interest in the well-being and success of my students, and I am genuinely enthusiastic about seeing them thrive,” Barnes wrote. “If any of my interactions ever made a student feel uncomfortable, I am truly mortified and deeply sorry.”    

In the weeks following their meetings with Barnes, keeping up with the coursework in organic chemistry — a notoriously difficult class — became a struggle for both Huang and Maya.

Huang no longer felt like she could safely go to Barnes when she had questions about coursework, which effectively shut down a potential avenue for learning. 

“It’s your safety or your grade,” Huang said. “That’s not a tradeoff anyone should have to make, but it’s one that I have to make. Ultimately, I chose my safety, and my grade is going to suffer, and it’s going to show on my transcript.” 

After taking the second exam, Huang broke down crying in class as a result of her ongoing stress. 

“I thought if I was a man, or if he never did any of that to me, if he was just a normal person and he didn’t touch me, I would have done so much better [on the test],” she said. “I would not have aced the exam, by all means, [but] I would not have to sit there and literally just shake.”

On Wednesday of last week, three days after the MeToo WashU post, Barnes sent out a Canvas announcement an hour before class saying that it was canceled, without an explanation. 

The following day, students enrolled in the course received an email from Jennifer Heemstra, Chair of the Department of Chemistry, saying that Barnes would no longer be teaching organic chemistry and that Professor Rong Chen would be taking over. The email did not provide a reason for Barnes’ departure.

Both Heemstra and Chen declined to comment, instead referring Student Life to Julie Flory, Vice Chancellor for Marketing & Communications. Flory wrote in an email that the University “would not comment on a personnel matter.”

Huang said she was shocked, but relieved, when she found out Barnes was no longer teaching. Originally, she had planned to wait and file a formal Title IX complaint after she finished the class, but she decided to move up the timeline after reading Heemstra’s email. 

“Now that he’s gone and he can’t touch my grade, I’m not waiting,” Huang said. 

Maya is also in the process of filing a Title IX complaint. When she was making her decision about whether to report it, she thought about the fact that her on-campus job as a WUSA makes her a mandatory reporter. 

“If one of my students told me that this happened to them, I would have reported it in a heartbeat,” she said. “So what makes a student different from me? I morally knew that it wasn’t right [for him to touch me], I just wanted to do good in the class, and I didn’t deserve to be touched in any way.”

For sophomore Natalie, it has been a struggle to process everything that has happened since the MeToo post. Natalie met with Barnes multiple times throughout the semester, and she said that the first time, he touched her on her shoulder and upper back, which made her feel awkward. 

When she had positive experiences in their following meetings, Natalie felt an internal dilemma. She viewed the discrepancy from their first meeting as a personal-space issue. However, she said she knows that different people can have varying reactions to the same acts of touching. 

“It was more of a stranger thing than what I would call sexual harassment,” she said. “It was more about me not feeling close to this professor.” 

When she found out Barnes was no longer teaching, she felt like it was a loss for the class because of his strong teaching. At the same time, she felt like it was important not to discount the feelings of anyone affected by Barnes’ alleged behavior. 

When Barnes last taught organic chemistry in 2022, one of his students was Sophie, a current senior planning on going to medical school. She remembers meeting with Barnes one-on-one on four separate occasions throughout the semester.  

She remembers that, during their final meeting, he moved his chair around his desk to sit next to her. She thought it was weird since he had never done it before and there was nothing she needed to show him that required him to sit close to her. 

“While I was talking, he touched my thigh two or three times,” she said. 

Two years after this incident, seeing the MeToo WashU post made her rethink her experience — when it first happened, Sophie felt caught off guard and unprepared for a professor to be touching her leg, but she didn’t think he had thought anything of it. 

“I did not consider reporting it, because it felt like such a unique experience, [and] he was not thought of as a creepy professor,” Sophie said. “But then, it seems like if this is a widespread experience, he must have been aware of it. He’s not a stupid man.” 

With just a few weeks left in the Fall 2024 semester, the future of Barnes’ work at WashU is unclear. In Combs’ statement, he wrote that Barnes looks forward to returning to his work as soon as possible. 

While Barnes is no longer listed as an instructor for organic chemistry, he is currently listed as leading three different research programs, all of which are on his schedule for next semester. He is also slated to teach a graduate course on physical organic chemistry in the Spring 2025 semester.

In the meantime, Huang says that she hopes, for the sake of students, that Barnes does not return to teach next semester. 

“I feel relatively more at peace [now that he is not teaching my class], but I know that the fight isn’t over,” Huang said. “It’s going to be a long investigation ahead of us.”

The Sexual Assault and Rape Anonymous Helpline (S.A.R.A.H) provides confidential and anonymous support and can be reached at 314-935-8080 24 /7 during the fall and spring academic semesters.

There are counselors at the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention (RSVP) Center, located in Seigle Hall, Suite 435, available confidentially to any University student. The office can be reached at 314-935-3445 or by email at mailto:[email protected].

The National Sexual Assault Hotline can be reached at 1-800-656-4673 or via online chat at https://hotline.rainn.org/online 24/7.

To reach Title IX, students can contact Title IX Coordinator Jessica Kennedy at 314-935-3118 or go to the Title IX Office in Umrath Hall 001.