A former New Jersey high school teacher
who once compared being gay to cancer has settled a discrimination
lawsuit against the school district.
According to the
AP, the settlement includes a $132,500 payment to Jenye “Viki”
Knox.
In 2013, Knox sued the Union Township
school district in federal court claiming religious and racial
discrimination. She also alleged she was denied her right to due
process.
In 2011, Knox created a firestorm of
controversy when she posted on Facebook a photo of a school display
recognizing October as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT)
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.”
A tenured special education teacher,
Knox retired to avoid facing tenure charges based on “unbecoming
conduct.” She later filed her lawsuit, claiming that the district
had violated her free speech and religious rights.
Both sides are barred from discussing
details of the settlement.