The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has
called Viki Knox's anti-gay Facebook rant “dangerous.”
HRC, the nation's largest gay rights
group, joins Garden State Equality in condemning Knox's alleged
remarks.
“Viki Knox's remarks are shocking to
hear from an educator charged with serving as a role model for all
students – regardless of their sexual orientation or gender
identity,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “Educators have a
responsibility to nurture their students as they develop into young
adults – and that includes making sure they feel supported and know
that there is nothing wrong with being LGBT. Her alleged public rant
is irresponsible and sends a dangerous message too her students.”
At the group's Call
It Out website, an online petition urges school officials to take
immediate action against Knox.
Steve Goldstein, chairman of Garden
State Equality, said if the 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, New Jersey 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.”
“Why parade your unnatural immoral
behaviors before the rest of us? AND YOU ARE WRONG! I/WE DO NOT
HAVE TO ACCEPT ANYTHING, ANYONE. ANY BEHAVIOR OR ANY CHOICES! I DO
NOT HAVE TO TOLERATE ANYTHING OTHERS WISH TO DO. I DO HAVE TO LOVE
AND SPEAK AND DO WHAT'S RIGHT!” Knox wrote.
“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.