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Genera Fisher filed a lawsuit against the Millville Public Charter School on March 7 in Superior Court, alleging she was let go "in retaliation for her protected activity of reporting a hate crime and/or racial harassment."
The alleged road rage incident occurred on March 3, 2023, according to the lawsuit which described the scene: A car driven by another student's parent brake-checking and turning without signaling in front of her.
Fisher honked her horn, and the car circled back behind the bus and began following close, the suit says. The driver of the car, identified only as John Doe, pulled up alongside the bus and shouted, “You, black b—, I know you saw me. I am going to beat your a--," the suit says.
Fisher recognized the driver whose child was a student at the school and who had previously had issues with other drivers, all of whom were black, the lawsuit says.
At this point, students on the bus were crying, according to the suit. The man yelled that he would get the bus driver fired and banged on the side of the bus. Fisher called the police who escorted the bus back to the school. She called her two sons who arrived at the school. The police told the sons to go home.
Later that day, a school manager called Fisher to say she was being fired, and said her sons had threatened the other driver with guns, the lawsuit claims. The suit denies such allegations, noting Fisher's sons don't have guns and hadn't seen John Doe at the school.
Fisher contacted managers at Millville Charter in the subsequent days, however, the school upheld Fisher's termination, the lawsuit says.
"The New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice makes it a crime to intimidate a person, or commit another unlawful act, based on a person’s race or color," the lawsuit said.
Further, the suit maintains that school officials violated anti-discrimination laws in firing her after she reported a racially-charged incident to police.
It says Fisher "suffered economic and emotional harm" and seeks back pay and front pay and benefits.
A person who answered the phone at the school's main office declined comment and hung up.
Fisher is represented in the case by attorney Erica Askin of Costello & Mains who had not returned a call for comment as of press time.
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