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.