NJ Teacher Suspended After Comments on O'Keefe Tape

After James O'Keefe caught some New Jersey teachers on tape trashing Chris Christie and using vulgar language, we were told how O'Keefe supposedly had no credibility. Well, if that's the case why has this teacher been suspended?

An unflattering video made during a New Jersey Education Association leadership conference this summer has had repercussions for least one union member: A Passaic special education teacher was suspended for nine days and will be docked a pay raise after making crude comments to an undercover videographer.

Alissa Ploshnick’s unintentional starring performance in the "Teachers Unions Gone Wild" video included, among other things, using the "N" word and joking about how hard it is for tenured teachers to be fired. It was all caught on tape at a hotel bar during the weeklong conference in August.

Passaic Superintendent Robert Holster, who said he considered bringing harsher punishment of tenure charges, said the discipline was a "difficult decision," because "some people believe what’s said outside the school system is someone’s right."

But he said Ploshnick’s comments — which he called "professionally insulting" and not "the responsible behavior of a professional person employed by the Passaic Board of Education" — merited the response. He said the tape created "kind of an outrage" in Passaic.

"The character of an educator has to be beyond the school bell. It doesn’t take place only in school," Holster said.

The superintendent took particular offense to the racial epithet: on the video, Ploshnick is heard saying she knew of a teacher who had used the "N" word to a student and was not fired, an incident Holster said did not occur.

"Passaic is multi-cultural and everyone has to be extremely sensitive in their thinking if they’re on our payroll," he said.