KLLF Files Federal Lawsuit Against Jersey City Board Of Education, Administrators, and Teacher Over Teacher’s Two-Day Racist Rant
KLLF filed a federal civil rights lawsuit earlier today on behalf of T.W., a senior at Dickinson High School in Jersey City who was subjected to two days of racist vitriol by her teacher.
The lawsuit alleges that on April 28 and 29, 2021, teacher Howard Zlotkin spewed ignorant, racist, profanity-laden diatribes against his students and Black people in general—all while he was supposed to be teaching a class on landscape and design.
T.W. alleges that Zlotkin yelled that George Floyd was “a criminal” who was killed “because he wouldn’t comply”; berated the high school students for, in his words, “emulat[ing] people . . . that are f**king wrong, that are criminals!”; and assigned T.W. and three other students to write an essay explaining why Black lives should matter to anyone, due the next day. The suit further alleges that, when T.W. refused to complete the assignment the following day, Zlotkin told her she was “full of shit” and said: “You can’t make a case for yourself? Talk to the hand.” When another student said that Zlotkin was being racist, Zlotkin kicked the student out of the virtual class.
Zlotkin should never have been teaching at Dickinson High on April 28-29. As the lawsuit alleges, T.W. had sent a video of Zlotkin curing at the class to the school’s principal, Defendant Casillas, months earlier, in December 2020. T.W. asked the principal for help, and Casillas told her he would address the situation. But, T.W. alleges, Zlotkin was back in class the following day, ranting about the student who had “ratted him out.” Similarly, though T.W. and her mother reached out to multiple school officials and even the Board of Education after class on April 28, 2021, nobody from the school took any steps to protect the students from Zlotkin. The next day, he was back in class, abusing the students once again.
T.W.’s federal lawsuit alleges that the Board of Education and school officials violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and state anti-discrimination laws in allowing Zlotkin to racially harass his students. T.W. is also suing Zlotkin directly for discriminating against her.
“It is outrageous that, even after T.W. repeatedly reached out to school officials about Zlotkin’s mistreatment, no one even bothered to get back to her until it was too late and she had been subjected to yet another class full of racist vitriol,” said T.W.’s attorney, Ali Frick. “Even more outrageous is that the school knew full well that Zlotkin was utterly unfit for the classroom and yet did nothing to protect students from him.”
T.W.’s attorney David Lebowitz agreed: “With all classes conducted remotely, it would have been easy for any school official to observe Zlotkin’s class at any time. And yet the school failed to even take that simple step.”
T.W. felt humiliated and degraded by Zlotkin’s treatment and has been consumed by feelings of sadness and despair since. She does not even like to leave the house. She seeks compensatory and punitive damages.