DAVID PASZKIEWICZ OF KEARNY HIGH SCHOOL IN NEW JERSEY: A CHRISTIAN AND AN UNFIT TEACHER

Matthew LaClair, a junior at a public high school in New Jersey, taped his American History teacher saying some rather stupid things.

No, this posting is not about privacy. Whatever a teacher says in the classroom is not private, and the teacher has no right to claim it as being said in confidence.


What the teacher, David Paszkiewicz, said was that evolution and 'the Big Bang are not scientific, that dinosaurs were aboard Noah’s ark, and that only Christians had a place in heaven'.

[Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/nyregion/01tape.htm?_r=4&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1170448459-oKr/wYMXtqWb7q3bnrfcYw ]



The student taped the statements because he was afraid that without solid evidence the school administration would dismiss the allegation or simply not believe it. The 'it' in question being that the teacher was, with the voice of authority, saying things that are inappropriate for a classroom and immaterial to the subject that he was supposed to be teaching.

All three of Mr. Paszkiewicz's statements fudge the Constitution’s separation of church and state. And clearly they are partisan and discriminatory towards non-Christians. Naturally I have a problem with this, as some of my best friends are non-Christians. Even some of my relatives are non-Christians. Heck, I too am a non-Christian. And Mr. Paszkiewicz is a moron and a bigot who should certainly not be teaching, and arguably not be on the public payroll in any function whatsoever.


Bernadette McDonald, the president of school board for the Kearny School District, has since ordered that teachers should receive instruction on the Constitutional separation of church and state and how it applies in the classroom. She has also asked the school board to adopt a policy showing "its strong commitment to the principle that the personal religious beliefs of our instructional staff have no place in our classrooms."

School officials have taken unspecified corrective action against Mr. Paszkiewicz.


That's not enough. The bozo should be fired. He does not belong in front of a classroom. Whether he belongs in the municipality of Kearny in New Jersey, or even anywhere in North America is a different matter.