Jersey City Student Files Civil Rights Lawsuit After Racist Rant

JERSEY CITY, NJ — The Dickinson High School student who was the focus of a teacher's vulgar and racist rant has had a federal civil rights lawsuit filed on her behalf against the Jersey City Board of Education, Dickinson High School officials and the teacher Howard Zlotkin.

Howard Zlotkin was teaching a high school class on April 28 when a discussion about climate change devolved into his views on Black Lives Matter and George Floyd — the rant was riddled with expletives aimed at the students.

"I hear people whining and crying about Black Lives Matter, but George Floyd was a f-----g criminal and he got arrested and he got killed because he wouldn't comply and the bottom line is we make him a f-----g hero," Zlotkin says in a recording.

The student in the lawsuit is named only as T.W. Zlotkin asked T.W. and three other students to write an essay explaining why Black lives should matter to anyone, due the next day. When she refused, Zlotkin cursed at her.

Patch reached out to the Jersey City Board of Education and Superintendent Franklin Walker and did not hear back.

According to the lawsuit, T.W. had sent a video of Zlotkin curing at the class to the school’s principal, Gekson Casillas who is also named in the lawsuit, months earlier, in December 2020. T.W. asked the principal for help, and Casillas told her he would address the situation, according to the lawsuit.

T.W. claims in the lawsuit, Zlotkin was back in class the following day, ranting about the student who had “ratted him out.” T.W. and her mother reached out to several school officials and even the Board of Education after class on April 28, but according to the lawsuit, nobody from the school took any steps to protect the students from Zlotkin.

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.”