NEW YORK — New Jersey’s Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday criticized comments made by a Union Township, N.J. high school teacher who posted an anti-gay rant on Facebook last week.
Chris Christie
In her Facebook post, Vicki Knox — a special-education teacher with more than 20 years of experience — described homosexuality as “perverted” and a “sin” that “breeds like cancer.”
Appearing on WABC Radio’s Joe Crummey Show, Christie (R), said, “I think that kind of example is not a positive one at all to be setting for folks who have such an important and influential position in our society. I’m really concerned about those kinds of statements being made.”
“I would like to see an examination of how that teacher conducts herself in the classroom because I think that’s extraordinarily important too,” Christie added.
Christie said he found the comments Knox made disturbing and then he renewed his call to overhaul teacher evaluations along with the state ‘s current tenure system.
Christie is advocating that a review process be implemented which would include in-classroom evaluations and standardized testing establishing a standard of re-certification for New Jersey’s teachers every three years instead of the current life-time tenure system that is in place.
The New Jersey Star-Ledger has reported that the uproar over Knox began two weeks ago when she posted comments on her public Facebook page critical of a LGBT History Month display at Union High School.
The district launched an investigation last week to determine whether Knox’s conduct violated any school policies. Knox has retained an attorney Friday through her union, the New Jersey Education Association.
In an earlier post, Knox had called on students in her Seekers Fellowship Bible study group to pray.
“Well, the enemy is making it clear and plain as day what Seekers Fellowship needs to pray about/against,” Knox wrote beneath a photo of the display.
Filed under: New Jersey
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No teacher should be allowed to teach if they are anti-gay.
I mean, face it. Our high schools gay population is full of gay people.
Its a shame. I’m Christian and PROUD of it, but I accept homosexuality. I’m openly bisexual and my pastor is married to her wife of 2 years. I love my congregation. <3 Support.
According to rpts, this person is a Special Ed teacher; does she treat her challenged students with the same ‘respect’?
I am pleased that he spoke out about it especially since he’s against gay marriage. Now lets see him do something about this homophobic teacher of children.
Odd to me, looking at a black woman telling people not to be tolerant of people who are different from her. I seem to remember a time when it was legal for white people to treat black people that way not so long ago. I seem to remember her people not liking that much.
Wonder how long a teacher would stay in the class room after posting that bigotted black wannabe Christian women are perverse and evil. Not very long I would guess.. just saying.
Christie’s comment is a reminder people have the capacity to change and become enlightened, no matter how slow or how small the step may be!
To my knowledge, Chris is for civil unions
im not a huge fan of him, but this was a pretty awesome thing to hear
I don’t think the Governor read her comments.
Why does radio and tv news make it sound like she went off on a gay bashing rant as a hate monger? Nothing she said here sounds hateful to me, it is her expressing her opinion and she should be allowed to have one. She should not be punished for expressing it either,that is FREE SPEECH. The argument that FREE speech doesn’t apply to public employees is ridiculous, how many Obama followers in the NJEA have expressed themselves in ways others find offensive and racist against whites? Another argument was given that she can’t teach because of her views! Does she need to agree with everyone’s point of view in order to be fair with everyone and be able to treat them equally? This is garbage which the special interest groups from both sides are latching on to and making a political and PC point out of it on the national level which is ridiculous.
What about the people who find homosexuality offensive and are being not only subjected to it in the school but HAVE TO Celebrate it otherwise be considered a hater and a bully. Why is sex or gay sex being not only taught but celebrated in public schools anyway? Is that really appropriate? Get the history right, get the math and science scores up.
The bully argument to me doesn’t hold water either, the special interests in against Vicki are saying she violated the new anti bullying laws in their attempt to grasp at straws trying to get her fired to win their argument.
How can making this broad statement be considered bullying? Doesn’t bullying have to have a specific target or are you now a bully because you make a statement that somebody may not agree with?
Anti-Bullying laws were put into place to prevent violence and extreme torture and stress so often inflicted in schools between students mostly, not to promote one “Politically Correct” agenda view over another. This is a dangerous slippery slope.
@Victor-Ya know, I’m sick of black people. Gotta tolerate them everywhere I go. Freakin’ Black History month. At least its in the winter. Thank God its not in the summer when I am trying to enjoy myself. Whoop de do, George Washington Carver invented the peanut.Great thing for a race to hang their hat on. BTW, that’s just my opinion and I am not targeting anyone in particular.
Victor, you’re very, very wrong. Saying that homosexuality is a disease that spreads like cancer is definitely hate speech, and I don’t see how anybody could think otherwise. And yeah, free speech does indeed exist in this country. She’s allowed to say nasty things, everyone else is allowed to point out her nastiness. And sex of any kind isn’t being celebrated anywhere – teaching tolerance to one particular group is NOT celebrating anything SEXUAL.
And hey, I bet a white teacher would definitely be fired if they made racist remarks against black people. This is no different than that – it’s ignorant prejudice and it’s wrong. You don’t know what you’re talking about, and it’s rather obvious by that incredibly long wall of text you just posted.
Christie’s pro civil union and the jokes about his weight above are disgusting. Before you start bitching about bullying DONT be a BULLY yourself!!! Christie: toughest anti-bullying laws in the country (with lgbt protections), he’s pro housing and enda lgbt protections, and as said above, pro civil union. He’s more of an ally than many!
Wow there a Governor on our side DAMN thats Scary
people like this actually sicken me
I’m a bi transsexual woman, and while I think Ms. Knox’s comment *is* hateful, I also think she can say whatever she wants to on her *personal* Facebook page. But if you’re comments are public, and your employer stumbles upon them, then you may as well have said it in the teachers lounge.
I think the message should be, ‘haters can hate, but you better hide’. Because if she just talked down with her other right wing friends, she would still be working.
Teachers are leaders of classrooms full of malleable minds. They play a role in setting examples for kids to follow as they grow up, and I certainly hope with all my heart that NO ONE follows this hatemongering Pied Piper.
I think this is hypocritical of the governor. I don’t feel any satisfaction that he coined an “anti gay” rant as NOT POSITIVE. Of course its not positive captain obvious, but neither is sitting in an office of power and not striving for the equality of all the citizens. Not that I agree or condone what this teacher said, but how is it any different from statements the governor has made about gay marriage? He is “not a fan” of gay marriage and its only supposed to be one man and one woman, sounds like the same thing as “sin” and “disease” fluffed up by his PR reps to not sound as condescending and discriminatory. Why should anyone be limited in having an opinion when the state and federal government continues to support intolerance, homophobia and hate?
throw them out they teach hate they belong with the devil…
I do not think so, gay people should be equal
This is coming from a man who flat out told the Gay Community right before he came into office “I will NOT sign a bill for gay marriage in this state while I’m govener.” I don’t believe this came from his mouth, but from someone on his staff who probably told him he needed to address this issue to show you “care”.
He is he very against gay rights and gay marriage. Thank god he didn’t run for President.
He’s hypricritacal and fake.
You are 100% right. Imagine a white teacher making disparaging comments on Facebook about Black History Month. How would Viki feel.
Hey Victor from the 10/19 post. I’m re-affriming the point that has already been made here. If the teacher had expressed her negative feelings about white students or if she were a white teacher who posted negative feelings about black students there wouldn’t be any of these bullshit freedom of speech arguements made to defend her. I doubt even you believe your arguements are valid – they don’t “hold water” you slippery slope.