An African-American bus driver for a haredi Orthodox Jewish school in Brooklyn filed a $2 million lawsuit against the school alleging discrimination.

The lawsuit by Willis Baker against the U

Baker said in the lawsuit that he was referred to as “monkey” and “blackie” by student, who also threw objects at him while he was driving, and that Yanke Schaefer, who hired him, called him his “monkey friend” in front of others. The suit, which also names Schaefer, also alleges that Baker was required to clean and service buses driven by the non-African-American drivers, the only driver ordered to do so, and he was not paid for the additional work.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The lawsuit also claims money was deducted from Baker’s paycheck for accidents that he says never occurred. He was fired after a car scraped itself against his bus while making a wild turn.

Baker says he was denied back wages and overtime pay.

Schaefer denies the accusations and says that Baker had at least five accidents with his bus.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount