New Jersey's largest gay rights group
is urging school officials to fire Viki Knox, a high school teacher
accused of writing anti-gay Facebook posts, The
Star-Ledger reported.
Garden State Equality Chairman Steven
Goldstein said if allegations against Knox are true, then she “should
not be teaching our children in public schools.”
School officials at Union High School
in Union Township are investigating the allegations against Knox.
Knox posted 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.
The 49-year-old 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.”
“Teachers are supposed to be role
models for our children, not hatemongers,” said Goldstein. “I
don't see how this teacher could possibly be effective in
implementing the state's new anti-bullying law, designed precisely to
teach children that bullying, including cyber-bullying, is
unacceptable.”
The
New York Times reported that Knox earned $72,109 in 2010
and had worked in the district for 12 years.