One of the tragic truths of our time is that racial discrimination still exists, and happens every day. One former custodian who used to work for Franklin Township Public Schools found this to be true when he experienced racial discrimination first hand and was “wrongfully terminated from his job.” As a result of his treatment, the former employee, Curtis Warren Sr., filed a lawsuit back in 2014 against “Franklin Township Public Schools, the township school district, the township school board and various board and district officials.”Currently the lawsuit, which was filed “in the civil division in Somerset County Superior Court,” is pending. But what happened, exactly? What kind of discrimination did Warren endure while employed with the school district? Well, according to his attorney, Donald Burke, Warren was “hired in 2004 by Franklin Township Public Schools, and worked his way up to the supervisor of the midnight shift at the township high school.”

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While employed he received positive feedback about his work, and one district manager of facilities even wrote that “Warren was very hard working and takes pride in his shift responsibilities and rated him the highest categories of 'excellent' in 9 out of 12 categories” during an assessment. Additionally, during his “2009-2010 performance appraisal, Warren was rated 4.11 out of 5,” according to the lawsuit. However, despite the positive feedback and great performance ratings, he was “informed in October 2009 by his supervisor, Rick Goetz, that he had not been selected for the position of head custodian at Hillcrest School, that another candidate was chosen.” That other candidate happened to be white, and “did not have the same qualifications as Warren,” according to the lawsuit.This led Warren to feel like “he was passed over for the promotion because of a complaint he filed against a supervisor years earlier.” Back in 2004 he “filed a discrimination complaint against his supervisor, Austin Patterson, regarding an incident that allegedly occurred July 21, 2004.” The complaint prompted an investigation “because a statement of a witness was taken, but no conclusions or recommendations have been provided.”In addition to being named in the 2004 investigation, Goetz is named in the recent racial discrimination suit, which stated: “Rick Goetz treated African Americans more harshly than non-African Americans. At all relevant times, there were never any African American maintenance men or Head Custodians.”But what about the school district? Doesn't it have a policy in place to prevent such discrimination from occurring? Well, yes. In fact, it has an anti-discrimination policy on the books, though “there is no proof in the record that defendants effectively monitor and enforce the policy.”When asked to comment on the pending litigation, a spokeswoman for the district said Franklin Township Public Schools does not comment on pending litigation.

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Ex-Franklin custodian claims racial discrimination in lawsuitSomerset County News