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Home > Columnists > Mario Cash
November 10, 2011

A Misfire: Judge Affirms Termination of Teacher for Baseless Claims of Racism


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A state judge ruled that former Paterson first grade teacher, Jennifer O’Brien, was appropriately fired because she made a statement on Facebook that "I'm not a teacher—I'm a warden for future criminals." Apparently, some parents complained. The teacher is white. Most of the students in Public School 29, the subject educational entity, are Latino and black. The rage, delivered by varied uninformed activists, political neophytes and media hypesters, is unsettling as they have levied a baseless claim of racism. There is no indication whatsoever that this woman's statements were targeting the students because of their African American or Hispanic backgrounds. Yet the judge, Ellen Bass, rambled from her Newark courtroom, “I came away with the impression that O’Brien remained somewhat befuddled by the commotion she had created." All reasonable people are befuddled by the judge’s findings. Bass ruled that O'Brien's conduct was without excuse, concluding that it’s especially problematic in school districts that are saddled with violence and poverty. Does Bass think less of children who reside in inner cities? Or does she just have a different standard for those children, one where statements are unacceptable as applied to them, but acceptable if applied to students in affluent school districts? Bass has judicially dictated an unfair double standard and, more dangerous, she has tagged a statement as racist with no rationale for the same. O’Brien’s comment was written on her private Facebook page. They were normal words. They reasonably could have been the words of a younger, frustrated teacher. They reasonably could've been the words of a joking, naïve teacher. If O’Brien taught in a white school district, her statement would have gone unnoticed, and no one would have cared. If she were Latina and taught in the same Paterson school, similarly no eyebrows would have been raised. Everyone would have just naturally accepted what the statement was: normal speech. Judge Bass, however, has little understanding and/or respect for speech, especially all the types of speech that are protected by the First Amendment. Bass’s opinion in the O’Brien case included her finding that the Paterson school district’s necessity for efficiency in conducting its operations is more important than O'Brien's right to free speech. Whatever she meant via this convoluted garble, it doesn’t supersede Ms. O’Brien’s right to free speech. It’s frightening to hear judges rule that a person’s constitutional right to speak their thoughts can be eliminated by some innocuous efficiency necessity. They only areas where speech is legally prohibited is in matters of threatened serious violence, such as terroristic threats, and in cases of libel and slander. Jude Bass, perhaps, was absent during that lesson in law school. Unfortunately, some people are angry, even hateful, full of animosity toward people of different colors and ethnic backgrounds. They take any opportunity they can to claim "racism", no matter how absurd their arguments are; ruining another's life is irrelevant to these people. This is what has happened with Ms. O’Brien. A small, but loud mob comprised of thoughtless hate mongors and politically correct weaklings - not just Judge Bass - have so very wrongfully attacked this young woman because of an innocent comment she made. In a republic, where free speech is supposed to reign, most people are reasonable. Hopefully, a rush of these good people will roll out the red carpet for Ms. O’Brien, with a wide selection of job offers. She deserves that. If the courts have failed her, then the reasonable, justice-seeking citizens of the United States should help her.

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