The less I say, the better. I truly do respect people's right to practice their faith. However, that respect ends at the point where they attempt to force their beliefs on anyone else, especially when their practice involves giving our children patently wrong information under the guise of education.
Over at Blue Jersey, we revisit the story of a Kearny high school teacher, David Paszkiewicz, who told his students that 'that evolution and the Big Bang were not scientific, that dinosaurs were aboard Noah's ark,' and "you belong in hell" if you "reject" Christianity. He also singled out a Muslim student to tell her that she is definitely going to hell.
Kearny school officials have certainly taken their time in handling the incident, which occurred at the start of the school year and became public in November.
In December, the Kearny school board continued to obfuscate who was at fault, silently implicating the young student who had secretly taped Paszkiewicz's classroom sermons for fear officials wouldn't believe him. In January, the teacher published a rambling letter in the local paper, explaining why the Constitution allows him to tell his students they are going to hell. He even insinuated the student who taped him was a part of a broader conspiracy:
It is my firm conviction that there is an effort afoot to undermine the very underpinnings of our freedoms.
This morning, the New York Times tells of Kearny's official reaction: Student's Recording of Teacher's Views Leads to a Ban on Taping
