Star-Ledger Editorial Board: N.J. teacher who made bigoted Facebook comments about gays must go

Viki Knox didn’t make her comments to her family at the dinner table, or to a small group of friends in the church parking lot after a Sunday service. Instead, she fired up a computer, identified herself as a Union High School teacher and posted bigoted remarks on Facebook — more than once.

She might as well have hopped on a soapbox across the street from the school and screamed her anti-gay rant into a bullhorn. Or stapled posters to telephone poles around town.

While we all should be allowed an inner circle with whom we can speak freely, Knox gave up those protections when she posted her comments on the most public forum there is — the internet. She created a fearful, hostile environment for students. That’s unacceptable.

Knox has the right to a hateful view, but once her beliefs are made public, she doesn’t have the right to a taxpayer-funded, $70,688-a-year job in which she is expected to treat all students equally and with respect. She should absorb the harshest action possible, suspension or firing.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2011/10/nj_teacher_who_made_bigoted_fa.html

:applause:

We've tried to talk to the superintendent about presenting a program to the board about anti-bullying, but they completely shot us down. I'm pretty confident that he's also part of the problem.

:loveya: to you and your wife

We'll be with you in spirit. :hug:

Any time I'm at the Capital lobbying, protesting local school boards, or in the Governor's office negotiating the signing of our Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, I think of the both of you and how your support has motivated me to fight as hard as I do.

Her pastor and an ex-gay are already making the media rounds claiming that she is the one being bullied. Would rather stick with the media friendly terms, as much as I'd like to use the one you've shared.

Whatever, 'cooler heads' and crap.

I'll call her what she is; 'ignorant', 'bigoted', 'homophobic', and a fucking douche.

I only use the term for its contemporary connotation.

"religiously insane nut ball" myself.

but she has every right to express her opinion. Teacher's don't give that up. Even the ACLU is backing her.

Aren't liberals supposed to be supportive of free speech? From what I've seen, there are too many on both sides of the political spectrum who only support the First Amendment when they agree with the speech.

They don't need a teacher that hates them,they have enough in their lives already. Get rid of her.

Bigotry is bigotry. No one should gety a pass or hide behind their relegion.

There would be no question about that teacher's competency to deliver curriculum in an unbiased way.

For shits and giggles, I might just take some of her postings and replace the word 'homosexual' with 'Black.'

I think that clue-by-four might penetrate some of the great legal minds on this thread.

I think there needs to be a showing that she is adversly impacting her classroom. Frankly, I highly doubt she is fair to all her students but if she is, then she should stay.

postings. She teaches special ed. I suspect more than one student is uncomfortable with how she deals with people she regards as 'other.'

It isn't a question of 'fair.' Teachers who gain a certain amount of publicity tend to lose their authority in the classroom--and get suspended and fired for it.


http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/02/10/former-stripper-turned-teacher-is-moving-on-with-life/

She is contractually obligated to not be a bigot. The onus is on her to prove that her public behavior is not indicative of her true self.

but if there is then I would think she is done. As to your other link, that woman broke the law (even if I don't think it should be illegal her conduct was). she would be in the situation I was in when I worked in MS. I had specificly stated I wouldn't commit sodomy if I then posted a blog about doing so I think I would have been done for.

to follow and conform to NJ State Law. NJ State law doesn't allow bigotry by a state employee towards a protected class.

No fear, though--she will have her pick of slots at any number of Jersey private schools.

but I think she can think differently about them. To take an example, I certainly am not enamoured of religious conservatives and likely hold opinions of them that are not exactly positive, but provided that I treat religious conservatives the same as I treat everyone else, my beliefs are irrelevent, whether spelled out on a website or not.

with things like morals clauses, conduct unbecoming standards, etc..

I say I am an atheist. I certainly have religious students. Not too far of a walk from point A to point B.

I don't like what this woman said, but she has first amendment rights on Facebook.

No one is questioning her First Amendment rights. But as a teacher in a state that just enacted the country's strongest anti-bullying legislation, it's not unreasonable to question whether or not this teacher would be able to implement the new law to the best of her ability.

There's nothing wrong with that. If, on the other hand, you say you're repulsed by your Christian students and think they're cavedwelling idiots who shouldn't be allowed their diplomas until they renounce their Bronze Age mythology that's another story.

My hypothetical Facebook status: "I don't understand how any thinking human being can believe in creationism."

Overall, I just think that it sucks enough being a teacher in this particular time that they now want to control our daily lives when we aren't at school. That said, I don't friend current students and I have all my privacy settings to Friends Only so that it doesn't filter through to them (not that my Facebook activity is horrible, but I do curse a bit).

But I don't see how it could be a real issue as it's not targeted. It's not directed at your students.


You're doing FB right. You secure everything and I don't imagine you identify yourself as a teacher at the school on your FB page.


My workplace has very specific rules about the use of Social Media. Among other things, if I post anything online I cannot disparage my workplace, any of its employees, any of its clients, etc. If I identify myself as an employee of the place I have to clearly indicate anything I'm writing is my personal opinion and not in any way associated with the workplace. I also can't divulge any personal information about clients of the organization. There's more on the two page policy but those are the basics. If I ever violate them I'm prepared to accept the consequences. I know my job is to serve my clients, not myself or my personal beliefs--and that responsibility extends to when I'm off duty. I can't take actions that could harm them just because I'm technically off duty and use "I'm off duty" to absolve myself.

This teacher identified the school she worked for and her position at the top of her FB page. She then put up a picture of the students' display for LGBT history month and went on a multi-page, virulent anti-gay rant. She might as well have screamed it all through a bullhorn at her school. She crossed the line and deserves whatever disciplinary action she gets.

She identifies herself numerous times as a teacher at the school, even going so far as stating, "I teach what I preach!", as well as taking the picture of the display that was posted on FB.

She disparages a lesbian co-worker at the beginning of the thread by complaining about how the co-worker referred to her partner in front of her as her "wife" after she was sent flowers at work.

With yet another teen suicide from bullying making the news today, I can't for the life of me understand how anyone does not see the need to remove this teacher from the classroom.

NJ Professional Standards for Teachers and School Leaders

Teachers know and understand:
3.1 How a person’s world view is profoundly shaped by his or her life experiences, as mediated by
factors such as social class, gender, race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, age and special
needs;
3.2 The supports for and barriers to culturally responsive teaching in school environments;
3.3 The process of second language acquisition and strategies to support the learning of students
whose first language is not English; and
3.4 The negative impact of bias, prejudice, and discrimination on students and society.

Teachers value and are committed to:
3.5 Respect for individual and cultural differences, and appreciation of the basic worth of each individual
and cultural group; and
3.6 The diversity of learning that takes place in the classroom, respect for the talents and perspectives
of each student and sensitivity to community and cultural norms.

She really has no defense for her actions.

Your religious students? Nothing wrong with publicaly declaring your atheism; but if you go on to declare that "people who choose - and YES, it is a choice - to believe in some GOD are ignorant morons who should not be allowed to express their stupidity in public," then you are harming your students. You would be using your atheism as an excuse to prejudge others who are religious. The community you teach in would have every right to insist that you don't teach their kids. it's not a free speech issue; it's a competency issue for the public school system.

posted it to her Facebook page, immediately complained about a lesbian co-worker referring to her partner as her wife, then went on a tirade about the immorality of homosexuality.

Viki Knox has intimidated and silenced any student of hers that is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender or Questioning. And this is what leads to so many LGBT teens committing suicide. She has exposed herself as part of the problem and needs to be replaced.

We support her right to share with the world her homophobia, but actions have consequences.

I assume you've read the entire 38 page pdf of her Facebook comments before making your post.

It's irrelevant to me. Her freedom of speech is the issue, not the length or the content. This "actions have consequences" crap is just code for advocating censorship, and I guarantee it won't stand up in court. If she's fired, I'm willing to bet that this will go all the way to the USSC one of these days, and she'll end up winning, as she should.

Share with us what you know about this situation.

is what I have read in a few news articles. There you go - I've shared. Regardless of what she posts in her blog, I'm not going to change my opinion about censorship. I'm all for freedom of speech, even if that speech makes some uncomfortable. Her point-of-view (pro or anti-gay) doesn't enter into the picture for me. When the government (i.e. the school district) gets involved in censoring private speech, it never turns out well.

But the material she posted on Facebook page that every student could see, not her 'blog', was very particular about the policy and procedures at the school she teaches at.

If she had posted as a civilian on some random blog, this would most likely be a different conversation.

How about disapproval with girls taking math and auto shop?

Just where in your Pollyanna world is the fucking line drawn for you?

Oh, and I grew up dealing with exactly this sort of shit from teachers and students alike, and no I did not 'turn out fine'. This is seriously damaging for the students she is talking about to hear from her and can make them kill themselves. I should know; I spent most of high school seriously thinking about suicide because of exactly these sorts of things.

I just wouldn't tell her she can't say it if she's not on school time. The line in my polyanna world (whatever that means) is drawn on the line of the First Amendment.

I too draw my line at that spot, however I also realize that there are often negative consequences to the negative things I say.

If I denied those consequences as part and parcel of speech, I would be, by definition, irresponsible.

Because you might fucking learn something.

RL

The first thing is that Knox's case is *not* a free speech case. It's a contract law case. The employment contract she signed obliges her to behave according to a code of ethics. Facebook is not a confidential venue. After what this militant anti-gay bully has said, there is no way she could be trusted fairly to evaluate actual LGBT students or those she might perceive to be gay, or even those who would speak in favor of equality and fairness for gay students. Then, even in these comments we see bullying non-acceptance of gay human beings. The notion repeated in some of these comments . . that race is an innate characteristic . . but homosexuality only a "behavior" . . is an act of anti-gay bullying. It is saying "We know that you do not feel heterosexual attractions but we demand for you to pretend that you are heterosexual anyway." This attitude flies completely in the face of everything that every modern medical and psychiatric association has to say about human sexuality generally and homosexuality in particular. A militant anti-gay bully who says that homosexuality is a "behavior" not an innate characteristic DOES NOT know better than the AMA about these matters.

The New Jersey Anti-Bullying Gay of Rights Act sets a legal requirement for all teachers to receive special instruction in how to recognize when students are at heightened risk of suicide, and also, in how bullying, including bullying over real or perceived sexual orientation, increasing the possibility of a student being driven to suicide. The appearance is that this teacher did not receive that legally required training. This publication should seek documentation from the Union Township Schools of its compliance with the law. If the schools have not complied with that portion of the law, the public should be informed the schools haven't complied.

Employers can set standards for their employees. In this case, a government employeee working with a vulnerable population can and will be investigated for making comments that directly affect a portion of the students she teaches.

She does have every right to saw what she wants. The government cannot, and should not stop her.

But she has no right to government employment if she cannot conform to norms and codes of conduct that the government, as employer, has a legal right and duty to establish. These are not obscure norms, nor are they overly burdensome.

I suggest you read the whole response of the ACLU--while acknowledging that the teacher has the right of free speech, they also note that her words allow the state to investigate her fitness as a teacher.

"But she has no right to government employment if she cannot conform to norms and codes of conduct that the government, as employer, has a legal right and duty to establish. These are not obscure norms, nor are they overly burdensome."

Care to cite some case law for that?

If so, you would be wrong.

Pickering versus Board of Education would be the case law you should be looking at. Pickering laid out some ground rules for a teacher's criticism of their employer. The story mentioned in the OP fails "the Pickering test" on several levels.


Pickering v. Board of Education

Free Speech ONLY pertains to speech against the government. The ACLU is going to lose this one.

You have no free speech rights when it comes to your place of employment, your boss can fire you if you call him an asshole on Facebook, and there really isn't much you can do about it.

If a teacher dealing with students is bigoted towards a certain segment of her class and pronounces that bigotry publicly, she should accept that her employer no longer wants to employ a bigot.

Of course she has the right to an opinion.

SO DOES HER EMPLOYER.

"Free Speech ONLY pertains to speech against the government."

Who taught you that?

According to that logic, you have no free speech to say anything against a corporation.

You couldn't be more wrong about your interpretation of the First Amendment. An private employer doesn't have to abide by it. In that case, there'd be no recourse. But if you're employed by the government, that's a different story.

You don't, however, have the right to expect a school board to not fire you for making bigoted comments publicly like that.

we allow them to police ALL speech outside of work. What's to stop a liberal school board for firing someone for being too liberal? For supporting pro-choice? For being an atheist and saying it?

This woman sucks. A lot. But we don't have any proof from what I've read that her classroom behavior is bad. I also haven't read anything that says she friends students on facebook nor what her privacy settings were. If someone has that, I would appreciate it.

It was publicly posted speech, available to all comers, referencing her co-workers, student activities, and replete with pictures taken on the school grounds.

Employers can, and do, require certain codes of conduct. That is perfectly legal and spelled out in the legislature in the this case (the NJ Anti-Gay Bullying Law) and often in a person's contract.

She is perfectly free to hold any opinion she wishes. She is not entitled to employment if an employer finds those opinions incompatible with the job.

how often the Bible was quoted by the "Jesus Freaks" to block every advancement of African Americans in this country. And Women. And pretty much every other group that isn't a heterosexual, White, Male Protestant.

Its shit like this that makes me pause and re-think if we wouldn't be better off funding some private schools and get all the jesus freaks out of the classroom sometimes.

where Jesus Christ himself called homosexually a sin.

This is how the bible is structured:

Old Testament - History of the Faith
New Testament Gospel - Words of Jesus, the person whom our faith gets it name (Jesus Christ - Christian)
Rest of New Testament - how Christianity spread throughout the lands.

So if she is a 'Christian' and says those words clearly she is not following the words of Jesus but taking the Christian History out of context. The disciples asked which of the old testament laws were the most important and the only ones that Jesus cited were in the 10 Commandments. No where in the 10 Commandments does it say "Thou shall be a douchebag"

Since Christianity is a self-identified religion, I think you Christians are stuck with her.

As for being fired from her job here is my 2 cents.

If a white teacher made facebook comments that were racists, I would suspect that Ms. Knox and her pastor would be the first 2 in line to condemn that teacher.

And I would like the scripture in the bible where Jesus says 'Homosexuality is a perverted sin'. In fact, when the Pharisees of the Synagogue asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was - it wasn't "Being gay is a sin" but

Matthew 22:34-40
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+22&version=NIV

The Greatest Commandment
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Greatest Commandment. It's called 'hating the sin, but loving the sinner.' Which is really just a passive-aggressive way to hate and condemn. So Christians like Knox aren't shorted on their hate...

This Viki Knox does in her rant differentiate between what she considers the "Sin" of homosexuality and the individuals who do the "sin."

Not by much, but she does. Just enough to avoid infamy.

And while we're not Congress...

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

and that matters.

Thing is that this Viki Knox is typical for Born Again crazies. She's middle-of-the-road for the Born Again crew.

Conservative Blacks are more anti-gay than conservative whites. We found that out in spades from the exit polls when Prop 8 passed. They made the difference in that election.

Ms. Knox has spent years learning to be a teacher. Shouldn't be too hard to teach her that sexual orientation is both acquired early (or born-that-way) and that it even moves naturally over the course of some lives.

Faith, Hope and Charity -- more important than the details of other people's sex acts.

Conservative Blacks are not more anti-gay than conservative Whites. I can guarantee you that here in New Jersey, the vast majority of anti-gay religious folks who were lobbying against marriage equality were White.

Let us continue to deny them the right to speak their mind on issues of the day.

What if this had been a teacher who was slamming people who had voted for Christie? Or slamming Christian fundies? Would you still be calling for her removal? I guarantee you that the RW folks would be. Thus, it seems that no matter what a teacher says in public can get them in trouble, with either the right or the left. And thus, three million people are denied their basic 1st Amendment rights to free speech.

If you read the 38-page FB thread you'd she was speaking in the capacity as a public school teacher on her FB page, taking a picture of a display of an LGBT History Month installation and commenting on her school's policies and procedures. She never represented herself as a private citizen.

This happens all the time with teachers. Letters to the editor, blog postings, public speeches, legal protests, whether a teacher is speaking in their capacity as a teacher or not, somebody disagrees with their viewpoint and if that person is enough of an asshole, and pushes hard enough, they can get that teacher removed. That has been one of the facts of a career in education for decades.

Name me another profession where you can get fired for writing a letter to the editor, or posting a pic of yourself holding a drink, or for attending an anti-war demonstration or on and on and on.

I don't agree with what this teacher stated, in any way shape or form. But I defend her right to say it because I'm sick and tired of being a member of a group whose free speech is effectively curtailed by the public.

All I need to know is that once again a teacher is being punished for daring to exercise her free speech rights. As has happened time and again to the point where most teachers don't say a damn thing, and are thus denied free speech.

Would you demand that an auto worker, doctor, lawyer, or anybody else be fired for saying what this teacher did?

... at any job I've ever had.

Disparaging my employer or it's clients, in this case a segment of the student population, would ALWAYS be grounds for dismissal.

That you can't grasp that concept is just plain bizarre.

I forget sometimes that adults can also be the bullies inflicting harm on vulnerable Queer youth.

"I teach what I preach!" is just one of many comments where Ms. Knox reminded readers that she was a public school teacher that had issues with the LGBT community.

...on Facebook while referring to his or her job, should that person be fired?

I just read the editorial.

Ms. Knox goes to great lengths to establish herself as a teacher at this school who loves to teach what she preaches. This isn't some random person posting homophobic comments on FB.

She posted a picture that she took of an installation for LGBT History Month, complains about a lesbian co-worker, then spews so much hatred against the LGBT community that if I were a student I'd feel totally silenced and intimidated.

What matters is her right to say what she wants. Period.

EOM

They are attempting to stifle her right to free speech. Same as if I wrote a LTTE endorsing Obama, somebody takes offense and tries to get me fired.

In fact it is because so many teachers have been fired for speaking out in public, outside of the school, that teachers no longer have a meaningful right to free speech. It is taught in virtually all education departments that as a teacher you have to be careful of what you say and do in public because somebody will take offense and try to get you fired.

Why do you want to continue to stifle free speech for teachers?

No one is stifling her speech. She can stand outside her school with a bullhorn or nail posters proclaiming her bigotry on every telephone pole. No one is denying her freedom to do so.

The difference in this case is that she repeatedly referenced her role as a school teacher, even going so far as taking a picture of an installation that acknowledged LGBT History Month, but then trashed it on line for all of her students to see.

She should not be fired for what she says outside the school door. You have a problem with that, then you have a problem with free speech. Frankly it is your ilk that continue to deny three million teachers in this country their right to speak freely. Would you call for the resignation of a politician, policeman, fireman, doctor, etc. for making such a FB comment? Or just teachers?

the school door.' She was the one who took it public.

If another public employee had done the same, I would call for their resignation. Wouldn't you?

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

She didn't post that to an official school website.

and if she's violated her contract, she goes.

Just this generalized sense of pressure coming from community assholes that seem to think that teachers should simply teach, and not be involved in politics, community, or anything else even vaguely controversial.

You have no idea what is and isn't in her contract. And your assertion she can "speak freely" on ANY subject without re-course is idiotic beyond comprehension.

It's in every teacher's contract. Seriously.

Having signed said contracts, I was not prohibited from political speech.

I was, however, not allowed to be a public asshole to protected groups. Nor was I allowed to take pictures of the school property, and publicly post them. Nor was I allowed to denigrate my gay co-workers on a public forum.

This teacher did all these things.

Union dues will pay for her defense, as they should. That doesn't require your public defense.