A teacher in New Jersey resigned from his position at Dickinson High School just one month after going on an anti-Black Lives Matter tirade in front of his class. Former teacher Howard Zlotkin was recorded making critical remarks about the Black Lives Matter movement and calling George Floyd a "f------ criminal." According to Dickinson High School Senior Timmia Williams, Zlotkin's tirade was geared toward four Black students in the class.
“I hear people whining and crying about Black Lives Matter, but George Floyd was a f------ criminal and he got arrested and he got killed because he wouldn’t comply and the bottom line is we make him a f------ hero,” he told his class.
“I don’t think you can make a case. You know what Timmia? You’re full of s--- too.”
***The video below contains language that may be deemed offensive and discriminatory***
Immediately after the video made its way to social media, Superintendent Franklin Walker called the tirade unacceptable. He also notified the Jersey City Police Department “because some of it could be at the same level as a hate crime.”
“The comments that were made were very biased and he shouldn’t be having that kind of discussion with the children — that had nothing to do with the subject matter in the classroom,” Walker said.
“The position that he put the children in certainly was a very uncomfortable one by doing and saying those kinds of things.”
Pamela Johnson of the Jersey City Anti-Violence Coalition Movement led a protest at the Jersey City School District's office as well. Activists called for Zlotkin to be fired and possibly charged.
“The trauma he inflicted on those Black students who he targeted cannot be easily undone,” Johnson added.
“That type of behavior will never be tolerated.”
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