A high school teacher in New Jersey was suspended after going on a profane tirade and calling George Floyd a "criminal" in a virtual class, school officials said.
A discussion about climate change on Zoom last week turned into an airing of grievances by Howard Zlotkin, a teacher at William L. Dickinson High School in Jersey City. A video obtained by WNBC shows Zlotkin, who is White, saying people are "whining and crying about Black Lives Matter." He also used expletives to talk about the Floyd case.
"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 said in the recording. Floyd died while in custody of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was recently convicted in his murder.
At one point, Zlotkin tells his students, "If you think I'm privileged then f--- you, because my daughter thinks I'm privileged and I don't speak to her."
Timmia Williams, one of the students that was present in the class, told WNBC that Zlotkin appeared to target his ire at Black students, and he called on four girls who are Black to write an essay. Her mother, Margie Nieves, said her teen daughter cried about the incident.
"She was crying. She came to me, tells me, 'Mom why is it there's a problem with my skin?'" she told the news station.
New Jersey teacher Howard Zlotkin suspended after going on profanity-laced rant, calling George Floyd a "criminal" - CBS News
.