New Jersey teacher suspended after calling George Floyd a ‘criminal’ and cursing at students during video class
A New Jersey high school teacher has been suspended with pay after he was recorded cursing at students and calling George Floyd a “criminal” during virtual classes.
According to CNN, Howard Zlotkin, a science teacher at William Dickinson High School in Jersey City, Zlotkin has multiple outbursts in the footage.
“The bottom line is, we make (Floyd) a f--king hero? He’s not a hero; he’s like a criminal,” the teacher says. “You guys emulate people, people that are just f--king wrong, that are criminals, and you’re making them right because they’re Black or they’ve got a bad story.”
The lead up to Zlotkin’s outbursts are not shown, but the student who recorded the footage, Timmia Williams, told CNN the topic had veered from climate change to Floyd at which point Williams started filming to have evidence of the comments to show school officials.
Williams also told CNN that Zlotkin asked her and three other Black students to write essays on the subject of “why Black lives matter.”
Zlotkin also claimed that the founders of Black Lives Matter had used donations to enrich themselves and buy houses, a popular talking point in conservative circles.
“I come to work, I happen to get paid by my Black vice principal who thinks I’m f**king privileged, too,” Zlotkin said in the video before cursing at a student.
Margie Nieves, the mother of Timmia, later reported the incident to the Jersey City Board of Education.
The next day, Zlotkin demanded to know why Timmia hadn’t written her Black Lives Matter essay.
“Why, you can’t make a case for yourself? No, you can’t, Timmia, that’s why,” he said in a second video.
He then said she was “full of s---” when she tried to respond.
Timmia told CNN the incidents soured an otherwise great week in which she had been celebrating being accepted into college.
Mussab Ali, president of the Jersey City Board of Education, told CNN that Zlotkin was suspended shortly after the second incident. The school district, as well as Jersey City Police and Child Protective Services, are investigating the incident.
Zlotkin, who is tenured, has been suspended with pay. He told The Washington Post his comments were taken “out of context” during his landscaping and design class.
