Five resident rssistants at Long Island University's C.W. Post campus were fired from their positions earlier this month because of a video they made as part of a team-building exercise.

William McDermott, Jordan Marmara, Engelbert Estrada, Robert Bennett, and Dustin Frye are currently suing the school for $2.,”

Five resident assistants at Long Island University-C.W. Post were fired from their positions earlier this month because of a video they made as part of a team-building exercise.

William McDermott, Jordan Marmara, Engelbert Estrada, Robert Bennett and Dustin Frye are currently suing the school for $2.5 million for defamation, wrongful termination and breach of contract, violation of state executive law, injurious falsehood/tortuous interference with contractual relations and violating a discrimination statute. Each of the causes carries a $500,000 fine.

The video, titled "A Duck Napping," depicted a mock kidnapping of the residence hall's mascot, Pete the rubber duck.

"The video was a satirical joke," said Frederick Brewington, the students' lawyer.

The five RAs wore ski masks in the video and jokingly made threats and demands for the duck to be returned. They demanded items like "Entemann's baked goods" and an iPod nano.

The video was posted on both YouTube and Google.

"The short film was shown to several students including some of the plantiffs' fellow staff and immediate supervisor within the RA office who laughed and appreciated the humor involved," according to the civil complaint that applies to the case.

University officials thought they were imitating terrorists and demonstrating racist views.

According to the case's civil complaint, Kristin Nelson, senior assistant director of residence life said the students were "racist" and had "mental issues."

The students were told to remove the video from the Internet and turn in all hard copies to the university.

"They were flabbergasted and felt betrayed," Brewington said. "They felt they were being singled out.

A university official was unable to comment.

"The matter is in litigation and we cannot comment at this time," Rita Langdon, associate provost, said in an e-mail.

The students are suing the university because a group of female RAs who made a similar video were not treated the same way.

"Five male students were terminated for their video, but a video produced by women RAs were placed on probation for their joke," Brewington said. "This is a case of discrimination and defamation."

According to a press release, in court Wednesday the judge ordered that the students could not be removed from their rooms, or have their meal plans discontinued. The university is also not allowed to take any further disciplinary action.

The case is set to continue in court on Feb. 28.

"We've already had a victory and hopefully the court will continue to see what needs to be done," Brewington said.

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