Jenye 'Viki' Knox, the New Jersey
teacher accused of posting anti-gay comments on Facebook, has retired
to avoid facing tenure charges.
According to the Star-Ledger,
the 51-year-old Knox submitted her resignation letter over the
summer.
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 against Knox after conducting a three-month investigation.
The charges, which are based on “unbecoming conduct,” have been
postponed as Knox seeks a disability pension due to 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.”
William Quinn, a spokesman for the
state Treasury Department, told
the paper that a teacher can file a claim for disability pension
even after he/she quits her job.