Viki Knox, the New Jersey high school
teacher accused of writing anti-gay Facebook posts, could lose her
job over the comments.
According to the Star-Ledger,
the Union Township school board announced on Thursday that it has
filed tenure charges against the 50-year-old Knox after a three-month
investigation.
The charges, which are based on
“unbecoming conduct,” will be heard by an administrative law
judge. The judge's ruling, however, is non-binding.
Knox posted on Facebook a photo of a
school display recognizing October as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender History month. It included photos of Virginia Woolf,
Harvey Milk and Neil Patrick Harris.
Knox, who teaches special education
classes, wrote “homosexuality is a perverted spirit that has
existed from the beginning of creation” and a “sin” that
“breeds like cancer.” She defended her position in subsequent
messages to Facebook users, saying that she believed being gay was
“against the nature and character of God” and that the high
school was “not the setting to promote, encourage, support and
foster homosexuality.”
Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden
State Equality, New Jersey's largest gay rights group, agreed with
the board's decision.
“It's not a time to be joyful when
prejudice exists in the first place or when anyone loses his or her
job because of it,” he said. “But it is a moment to be joyful
and thankful that someone who is prejudiced will no longer be spewing
hate to students. She had in her hands the impressionable mind,
which should never be the recipient of such hate.”