A shadow has fallen over the classrooms and administrative offices of the Jersey City Public Schools, a shadow cast not by a lack of funding or pedagogical failure, but by a deeply rooted culture of fear and favoritism that has cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars and, more tragically, has broken the careers and spirits of dedicated public servants.
An exhaustive review of court records by Jersey City Times reporter Sarah Komar reveals that over the past five years, the Jersey City Board of Education has quietly settled at least 14 lawsuits filed by its own employees, who alleged they were victims of workplace discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.
At least six more such battles are still being waged in the courts, painting a distressing portrait of a district where whistleblowers are silenced and civil service rules are treated as mere suggestions…