Jenye 'Viki' Knox, the New Jersey
teacher accused of posting anti-gay comments on Facebook, wants to
retire to avoid facing tenure charges, the Star-Ledger
reported.
The 50-year-old Knox, a tenured special
education teacher, last year created a firestorm of controversy when
she posted on Facebook a photo of a school display recognizing
October as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History month which
included portraits of Virginia Wolf, Harvey Milk and Neil Patrick
Harris, and 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.”
The Union Township school board filed
charges after conducting a three-month investigation. The charges,
which are based on “unbecoming conduct,” will be heard by an
administrative law judge.
The hearing, which was to begin
Tuesday, has been postponed as Knox seeks a disability pension due to
both a back injury and “psychological grounds.”
“If I can retire then there is no
need for me to go through this unpleasant experience,” Knox wrote
in her filing.
She also maintained her innocence:
“Although I continue to maintain that I have done nothing that
warrants me being disciplined … the thought of going through a
tenure trial causes a great deal of angst.”