A white custodian, who said he was the victim of racial discrimination by the Lorain City School District, has now filed a federal civil rights complaint.
Billy Kopp said a coworker sent him a plastic black gorilla through the inter-district mail system in 2014. Kopp took it as a racist disapproval of his relationship with a black woman.
“It makes me sick to my stomach,” Kopp said.
But when he reported the incident to a supervisor, the 20-year district veteran said the complaint was brushed off. He was fired a few months later, Kopp believes, because he complained.
“I know I got fired because I complained about this,” Kopp said.
And in a new federal civil rights complaint filed in Cleveland, Kopp’s lawyer Avery Friedman claims the termination, for overstating overtime, was actually retaliation. He said Kopp had few prior disciplinary issues two decades of employment.
“Inside our contract, we have progressive steps of discipline,” Kopp explained. "So they go from no steps of discipline just to fire me over an actual mistake on a time card.”
But just two months after getting fired, the district re-hired him, but only on a probationary status making less money. Kopp said, after an EEOC investigation found he had grounds to sue, he’s out to seek justice.
“I’d like to see a few other people get fired and let them see how it feels,” he said.
A Lorain City Schools spokeswoman declined News 5’s on-camera interview request, citing a policy forbidding comment on personnel matters.
