Viki Knox, a Union Township, New Jersey public school teacher was recently caught gay-bashing on Facebook, a non-confidential venue. New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie, a reputed social conservative, characterized Knox’s Facebook gay bashing as “disturbing.”
Knox posted on Facebook that homosexuality is “a perverted spirit that has existed from the beginning of creation,” and called it a “sin” that “breeds like cancer.” She also wrote, “I do not have to tolerate anything others wish to do.”
New Jersey’s Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act requires all New Jersey public school teachers to receive special instruction from licensed mental health care professionals about suicide prevention and the connections between bullying and teen suicide.
I requested and received documentation from the Township of Union Public School District regarding its compliance with that portion of the law.
Teacher Knox signed a document affirming that she had received the anti-bullying training.
A law alone can not remove an anti-gay brainwashing from the brain of the brainwashed. However, as with Florida public school teacher Jerry Buell’s anti-gay Facebook hate speech, we see that many anti-gay bigot teachers today are clueless about the Internet not constituting confidential communication. Public school teachers sign employment contracts which bind them to conform to professional ethics codes. A good guide for bigoted teachers in doubt might be to ask themselves, before posting anti-gay hate speech on the internet, “Would I stand in the halls of my public school, screaming all this out with an experienced civil rights and public school education attorney witness to the anti-gay hate speech I was screaming?”
If a bigoted public school teacher feels they should not and/or would not scream some anti-gay rant in the halls of their public school, then they probably should not post that anti-gay rant to the Internet either. Gay students have a right to a safe school environment. A teacher who openly expresses contempt for gay human beings and their rights can not be trusted to create and maintain a school environment safe for sexual minority students. Ignorance-fueled, bullying non-acceptance of gay human beings has no place in a school.
Ms. Knox’s obliviousness to that, even after she had been given legally-required, special anti-bullying and suicide prevention instruction by a mental health professional, casts doubt on her core intelligence and judgment. She should be relieved of her duties and her teacher’s certificate should be revoked.