Teacher Who Called Her Students 'Future Criminals' on Facebook Should Lose Her Job, ALJ Rules
A first-grade teacher in New Jersey is planning an appeal after an administrative law judge ruled she should lose her tenured job because of a Facebook post.
The post read, “I’m not a teacher—I’m a warden for future criminals,” the Record reports. Jennifer O’Brien has said she posted the controversial item for about 300 of her Facebook friends because she was frustrated by students who disrupted her lessons and a boy who hit her.
Administrative law judge Ellen Bass said the post was insensitive, especially in the city of Paterson where poverty and violence are problems. Bass said the school district’s need to efficiently operate its schools outweighed O’Brien’s right to free speech, the story says.
Bass said O’Brien should not return to teaching in Paterson because of a damaged relationship with the community, though she could teach elsewhere after sensitivity training.
O’Brien’s lawyer, Nancy Oxfeld, told the publication she will ask the state education commissioner to reject the judge’s recommendation.
Updated at 11:53 a.m. to correct spelling of town’s name.
