An Iranian-American graduate student at Georgetown University sued the school today, saying security officers engaged in racial profiling when they detained him at a university graduation ceremony last year.

Kambiz Fattahi says in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court that two Georgetown security guards interrogated him for a half hour during the ceremony at a gym at the school's Washington campus last May.

The officers allegedly told him his behavior, which included repeatedly opening his bag, was making other people nervous. The lawsuit claims the officers asked him about his national origin and searched his bag before letting him go.

Fattahi filed a complaint with the university's public safety division, but a subsequent university investigation concluded the officers had not acted improperly. The university report says Fattahi was asked about his heritage in case he needed a translator.

But Fattahi, who speaks English, says he was only checking his cell phone in his bag and believes he was targeted for his "Middle-Eastern appearance."

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