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Aaron Schlossberg, lawyer in racist video, 'was always a jerk,' Haverford classmate says

The attorney who criticized workers at a Manhattan restaurant had a less than stellar reputation during his school years on the Main Line

Lawyer Aaron Schlossberg (center), the man who ranted against the people speaking Spanish in a Midtown restaurant, takes a cellphone video of reporters recording him on video as he leaves his home in Manhattan on Thursday, May 17, 2018.
Lawyer Aaron Schlossberg (center), the man who ranted against the people speaking Spanish in a Midtown restaurant, takes a cellphone video of reporters recording him on video as he leaves his home in Manhattan on Thursday, May 17, 2018.Read moreAnthony DelMundo / New York Daily News / TNS

Years before Manhattan lawyer Aaron Schlossberg became the internet's current racist du jour, he was a bright-eyed student at the Haverford School, an elite private school on the Main Line, where, according to one classmate, he was not particularly well-liked.

"He was always a jerk," Michael DiDomenico posted Thursday in the Lower Merion Community Network Facebook group.

DiDomenico claimed that he had "kicked his butt a couple times"  — Schlossberg's, that is —  when they were kids and lamented that Schlossberg's antics in New York had harmed the reputation of the prep school.

"I don't know what his problem is," DiDomenico said in an interview Friday, adding, "As a classmate, I'm disappointed that it hurts the Haverford School."

>> READ MORE: Lawyer, a Main Line native, faces complaint after ranting against Spanish speakers in NY

Schlossberg, 42, went viral this week after he was recorded ranting against employees speaking Spanish inside a New York City restaurant.

In the Facebook video, first reported by Latino Rebels, Schlossberg said he would call Immigration and Customs Enforcement to have the workers "kicked out of my country" and complained that they "come here and live off of my money."

"I pay for their welfare. I pay for their ability to be here," he said. "The least they could do is speak English."

Court documents show that Schlossberg was charged with disorderly conduct in 2009 for allegedly disturbing patrons at Citizens Bank Park and, when informed he was going to be ejected, jumping in the face of a police officer and saying, "You're f–ing dead." The charge was later dismissed in Municipal Court.

The restaurant video led U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. to file a complaint with New York state's court system, which has a grievance committee for attorney complaints.

Espaillat and Diaz, both Democrats, called Schlossberg's actions "vile" and said "the audacity to profile and verbally assault innocent bystanders and customers in a public commercial location is a violation of our civil society."

Adding to Schlossberg's woes, BuzzFeed and Vice have dug up clips of the lawyer railing against immigrants. In some of the videos, he is seen wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat, suggesting he was a supporter of President Trump. As he is — he contributed $500 to Trump in 2016.

In one from April last year, he confronts a man who says he's from the Netherlands.

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Schlossberg tells the man. "You should just say, 'Thank you for letting me in your motherf–g country.' "

In October 2016, Schlossberg was caught on video calling a stranger "an ugly f–ing foreigner" after he said the man ran into him on the sidewalk.

This week, Schlossberg has been dodging photographers using an umbrella, or, in the case of NBC New York, sprinting down the street in a winter hat and sunglasses.

Headline Talent Agency, whose owner describes Schlossberg as an "incredibly efficient and effective attorney" on his law firm's website, wrote on Instagram that it hasn't done business with him in years and "would never recommend him to anyone."

Schlossberg attended the Haverford School from 1983 to 1994, according to his LinkedIn page. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University's school of arts and sciences and got his law degree at George Washington University Law School. He lists four languages — including Spanish — in the "accomplishments" section of his LinkedIn page.

A man who answered the door Friday at Schlossberg's childhood home in Merion stared at a reporter and shook his head, then shut the door.

In a page from Schlossberg's Haverford School yearbook obtained by BuzzFeed, Schlossberg wrote about the importance of living within "distinct and unarbitrary boundaries" and the need to "play by the rules."

"If one shines within boundaries, it is evident that one is exceptional," Schlossberg wrote.