Teacher Resigns After Racist Rant In Latest Zoom Blunder

PALMDALE, CA — A Southern California school district is facing a possible lawsuit after a parent claimed she captured a teacher’s racist tirade when she forgot to end a Zoom call.

Katura Stokes, the mother of a 12-year-old student at Palmdale School District, filed a claim in California court after she said she recorded her child’s former teacher, Kimberly Johnson, for more than 30 minutes as she made racist comments about Stokes’ family, which is Black.

Stokes said she recorded Johnson when she realized the teacher had not ended the call and heard her make “racist” and “inflammatory” remarks.

“She’s answered her phone for the first time the entire year,” the white sixth-grade teacher allegedly said in a video recording shared with The Washington Post. “I mean these parents, that’s what kind of piece of s--- they are.”

In the recording, Newman is allegedly heard saying, “The family is a piece of s---, they are Black, they are Black,” before suggesting Stokes and her son are lazy.

She continued, “Your son has learned to lie to everybody and make excuses. … Since you’ve taught him to make excuses that nothing is his fault. This is what Black people do.”

Johnson has since resigned from her position with the district, a spokesperson told The Washington Post. She was initially suspended but resigned after refusing to cooperate for a possible investigation into the incident,

Stokes filed her claim in California court last week, The Post reported. She is seeking monetary damages for negligence, defamation, and civil rights violations.

More than a year into the coronavirus pandemic, the incident involving Johnson is just the latest in a string of Zoom and online meeting faux pas captured by a hot mike and a still-rolling webcam.

Some gaffes were lighthearted and humorous.

In Texas, an attorney appeared as a kitten in a court hearing because he couldn't figure out how to disable a filter. The judge gave him props for handling the situation with aplomb.

• 'I'm Not A Cat': Lawyer Has A Purr-fect Response In Zoom Hearing

Other examples haven’t been so funny.

In Michigan, a Walled Lake Central High School teacher’s bathroom break was livestreamed on Zoom, prompting a “thorough investigation” into the incident. “Both staff and students made choices that compromised social integrity," the district said in a statement.

• Teacher Takes Potty Break On Zoom; Authorities Want To Know Why

In other cases, problems that typically happen in classrooms or offices — problems like bullying — have moved beyond brick-and-mortar constraints to videoconferencing platforms.

• 'Zoom Bombing' Is A Pandemic Thing; It's Also A Bullying Thing

"Zoom bombing" — which happens on Google Meet and other videoconferencing platforms, too — is a relatively new form of cyberbullying that's exposing everyone from kindergartners to senior court judges to behaviors ranging from benign high jinks to racist screeds to criminal conduct.

Patch national editor Beth Dalbey contributed to this report.