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Answers on Kearny HS teacher controversy


Guest Paul

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Long ago I taught in East Paterson, NJ. As a newly re-located "southern girl" I was asked in my interview with a couple of school board members, no less, if "...could teach Negroes?" This discussion of freedom FROM religion in a public school classroom tells me things have not progressed much in the last 46 years.

Why is there a discussion about this AT ALL? Sounds like something which would happen in Texas. Just fire the teacher and be done with it. I have always been very proud and well served by my Master's degree from Rutgers. Reclaim your status as a good sense state and send this person off to "teach" in some "religious" school somewhere...there is no shortage of those institutions, unfortunately.

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Guest Steve_C
Great points! Plus the LaClairs keep saying Paszkiewicz lied. If he lied I'm sure those tapes would have been released months ago. Its apparent to me the a good man is being slandered.

Tapes released? Why? I heard online one class session with the fool Mr. P. That was enough.

He should of been fired on the spot. A muslim would of been.

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Long ago I taught in East Paterson, NJ.  As a newly re-located "southern girl" I was asked in my interview with a couple of school board members, no less, if "...could teach Negroes?"  This discussion of freedom FROM religion in a public school classroom tells me things have not progressed much in the last 46 years.

Why is there a discussion about this AT ALL?  Sounds like something which would happen in Texas.  Just fire the teacher and be done with it.  I have always been very proud and well served by my Master's degree from Rutgers.  Reclaim your status as a good sense state and send this person off to "teach" in some "religious" school somewhere...there is no shortage of those institutions, unfortunately.

So willing are we to remove the livelihood from a family?

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So willing are we to remove the livelihood from a family?

Yes. Have Mr. P get another job. Perhaps as a Wal-Mart greeter where he can preach the gospel all he wants.

Keep that bigot out of public schools.

Hire him at the Baptist Church. I hear that Westboro Baptist needs more people.

***

KOTW Note: The above post was edited for content. A link was removed.

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Guest bewildered
So willing are we to remove the livelihood from a family?

He was hired to teach history. He was not doing his job. He said things that could make the school board vulnerable to lawsuits Firing may not be best, but I think that should be left on the table.

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Tapes released? Why? I heard online one class session with the fool Mr. P. That was enough.

He should of been fired on the spot. A muslim would of been.

Why? Because Paul LaClair lied. He said that Mr. P lied, but he was the one who lied.

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The attacks against Matthew and Paul LaClair are disgusting. Time after time, ignorant and angry people who know nothing about the facts make up stories, call names, distort the truth, and imagine what the LaClair's might be like without knowing a thing about them. And all of it is done to deflect attention away from the people who have caused this problem: David Paszkiewicz, the administration and the Board. It is slander, and it is wrong. All the more ironic, it is done by people who claim to be God-fearing. I wouldn't believe anyone could be like that if I wasn't seeing it for myself. This behavior disgraces religion.

People who read these attacks should realize that the people writing them are just making them up. Most reasonable people already know this. Someone should have said it long before now.

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Paul LaClair lied. He said that Mr. P lied,

And since you cannot prove that Mr. P. didn't, you cannot prove that that is a lie (it does not automatically mean he _did_ lie (that would be the fallacy of shifting the burden of proof), but it DOES mean that there is zero evidence for your claim that he lied). They haven't lied about anything else--why would they lie about this? It's quite trivial in the grand scheme of things, you know, what with the airtight evidence of the proselytizing and all.

but he was the one who lied.

Nope.

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The attacks against Matthew and Paul LaClair are disgusting. Time after time, ignorant and angry people who know nothing about the facts make up stories, call names, distort the truth, and imagine what the LaClair's might be like without knowing a thing about them.

They gave us plenty of clues of what kind of people they are.

And all of it is done to deflect attention away from the people who have caused this problem:

The LaClairs. As far as I can remember they started it all. If they had any problem with the teacher, they should have gone to the teacher first, and they did not. He already gave his excuse. Very lame. Not very convincing.

This is called chain of command. Chain of command starts at the first link. TEACHER, if that did not work than go to the principal and ....

Principal and Media is not the first link in all of this.

All the more ironic, it is done by people who claim to be God-fearing.

It was not done by people that fear GOD. They do not believe in GOD.

People who read these attacks should realize that the people writing them are just making them up.

Don't you think you might be wrong? People writting in here might be in Mat's class. They would know more than you. Don't you think?

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The attacks against Matthew and Paul LaClair are disgusting. Time after time, ignorant and angry people who know nothing about the facts make up stories, call names, distort the truth, and imagine what the LaClair's might be like without knowing a thing about them.

They gave us plenty of clues of what kind of people they are.

And all of it is done to deflect attention away from the people who have caused this problem:

The LaClairs. As far as I can remember they started  it all.

Oh, so it was the LaClairs preaching on government time to a classroom of public school children?

If they had any problem with the teacher, they should have gone to the teacher first, and they did not.  He already gave his excuse. Very lame. Not very convincing.

This is false. IIRC, Matthew talked to the teacher before he recorded anything--the teacher's stubbornness is part of the reason he decided he needed to have airtight proof to assure he wouldn't be able to deny what he said.

Besides, look at Mr. P.'s statement in the Observer. You can tell that even if the LaClairs _had_ gone 'through' him, they wouldn't have had another option anyway, since Mr. P. makes it clear that he believes he did absolutely nothing wrong.

This is called chain of command. Chain of command starts at the first link. TEACHER, if that did not work than go to the principal and ....

And that's pretty much exactly how it happened.

Principal and Media is not the first link in all of this.

Which would explain why the story only appeared in the media months after the actual events. What's your evidence for them going straight to the media?

All the more ironic, it is done by people who claim to be God-fearing.

It was not done by people that fear GOD. They do not believe in GOD.

People who read these attacks should realize that the people writing them are just making them up.

Don't you think you might be wrong? People writting in here might be in Mat's class. They would know more than you. Don't you think?

So you are suggesting he's wrong because "people writting (sic) in here might be in Mat's class?" That's all you've got? A possibility? You know, it was Matthew's classmates that made it clear that this teacher has been preaching in class for years. The best argument I have read from someone who made it clear they were in school with Matthew was 'Mr. P. is a nice guy so Matt is an asshole'-ish nonsense that displays its emotional attachment and detachment from any real evidence of anything quite clearly. Only thing worse I've heard from them is parroting of what eventually became Mr. P.'s nonsense argument about how his freedom of speech is violated if he isn't allowed to preach to his students. Please.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Why? Because Paul LaClair lied. He said that Mr. P lied, but he was the one who lied.

I'm perfectly willing to give Paul LaClair the benefit of the doubt, here--and you should, too.

The only apparent source Paul used for his report on the meeting between school officials, Paszkiewicz, and Matthew LaClair seems to be Matthew LaClair.

I don't think that anyone could fault Paul LaClair for trusting Matthew's account sufficiently to publish it as the truth (unless Matthew had a remarkable reputation for lying, and I have no evidence of that), though if Matthew's account is inaccurate Paul LaClair may have committed libel.

It is appropriate, however, to point out that the account of the office meeting appears to come from an interested party (Matthew) via another interested party (Matthew's father).

Any judge who pretends to objectivity would prefer to have another account of the meeting before pronouncing Paszkiewicz a liar.

Give the LaClairs similar consideration.

One more thing: We should not see Paul LaClair using that quotation as though it was part of a one of the recordings (unless it was recorded).

Honesty should impel him to admit that Matthew was the source he trusted for the accuracy of the quotation (assuming that there was no other source).

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Huh.  I'm very one-sided.

Not at all.  You've been asked about a particular quotation, one that you've been using as part of your argument against Paszkiewicz.  That's the quotation from the office meeting, where Matthew was present with school officials and Mr. Paskiewicz.  We have a written account that appears at Jim Lippard's blog, but without attribution as to the author, and without attribution as to the source providing the quotation of Paszkiewicz.

That quotation is not likely to appear on any of the classroom transcripts, so no amount of listening is going to address that issue.

Simply tell us, Paul, if you know who wrote that piece on the Lippard blog, and whether Matthew is the sole source relating that quotation of Paszkiewicz.

That should be simple enough, regardless of any profusion of recorded classroom sessions

Hence the pesky questions directed at one who was largely on the inside.

Understood and appreciated, Bryan. I'm not willing to provide more information publicly right now.

My mistake. Jim Lippard identifies Paul LaClair as the source of the piece.

"The following is from Paul L. LaClair, a NYC attorney who lives in Kearny, New Jersey, and is posted with his permission."

http://lippard.blogspot.com/2006/11/public...-class-you.html

So LaClair felt comfortable enough offering that information to Jim Lippard's fairly popular blog, but refused to admit it at KOTW?

According to my recollection, LaClair has been quoting from this story as if it's an impartial third-party source. IOW, he hasn't been clear that the source is his son if that is, as it seems to be, the case.

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  • 10 years later...

Here we go again.  A post from Facebook referring to Mr. P: 

Copied in case the people on Facebook delete it.  Nobody realizes that we have been through this before.  Kearny needs to hire another teacher and coach and tell Mr. P he can take all his day to practice his religion.

Here is the post on Facebook:

KHS Girls Crew Update 10/1/2017
The Inequality for girl’s crew in Kearny High School is not only still going on it is getting much worse.The DOE OCR continue to investigate. 
Just to be clear, I never criticized the current girls crew coach abilities to coach.
This fall for the first time in approximately 10 years the KHS girls are not rowing. Make no mistake, this is not the coach taking a break from his “volunteer” season that he doesn’t get paid for. There is no coincidence that his son got fired from coaching the girls after a police report was filed June 9 , 2017 against him . It is also not a coincidence that the girls aren’t rowing in the fall because all the fall races are on Sundays. 
KHS girls crew head coach gets paid roughly 11,199 for coaching our girls. That 11,199 is formally for spring coaching however, he has been coaching girls fall crew in addition to spring for about the last 10 years. However, fall crew is not an official school sport. 
One of the reasons fall crew is advantageous is the Head of Charles, which is the largest race in the world. The Head of the Charles is held in October on a Sunday. This race is like going to the Olympics for rowing. The KHS boys have been going to the Head of the Charles for years and at least two of the KHS boy rowers were recruited at the Head of the Charles for division one schools and scholarships. KHS girls are not allowed to go to this race because of the head coach’s religious beliefs. He published a book stating that his religious convictions did not want him to coach on Sundays. 
In 2011 a girl’s crew boat won the chance to compete at the Head of the Charles and The Current KHS girls crew coach had them scratched from the race without even telling them they won that once in a lifetime chance. I have proof of this from the president of the head of the Charles. 
If we are setting the record straight, let me be clear, this is not about religion. This is about the KHS girls head crew coach’s religion. Your religion and my religion do not count. My daughters 5th generation Irish Catholic history in this town is not good enough for this coach. In fact, he violated my daughters and many other girl rower’s civil rights by asking them what their religion is and pressuring them to join his religious group. Lawyers would have a field day with this. Lawyers would also have a field day with him violating our children’s civil rights by asking them their sexual orientation. The KHS LGBT community has also been treated less than by this person. This is a very exclusionary small group that our tax dollars are paying for and that is bringing down our entire town.
Generally speaking, Kearny is a blue-collar town and rowing is a white-collar sport.  If our girls receive scholarships for rowing this lifts the whole town up. Everything from property value to moral goes up (think about what soccer did for Kearny). Many do not know Kearny has two Olympic rowers. In addition to that, rowing is one of the few sports that almost everyone starts freshman year, which means everyone is on an equal playing field freshman year. Most of us know this is not the case for most other sports where children are sent to camps and clubs to hone their athletic skills before entering high school. 
What most people don’t know is that rowing scholarships available for girls are at an all-time high. There is more scholarship money out there for girl rowers than any other sport. Our Girls in KHS are missing this because they are not being seen by recruiters at the Sunday Philly Flicks and the Head of the Charles where the largest clusters of recruiters go to see the most number of teams in one place. 
It’s doesn’t matter if you have only boys or your child doesn’t row or that you don’t have kids. Our girls are being treated like second class citizens. This affects everyone. To do nothing is to allow this to continue. My daughter and myself were retaliated against because of this case at least ten times since 2014, the federal government has accepted most of these retaliations. That is why more than one person needs to speak up. That is why the Board of Education keeps asking me why are you the only one to speak up. Trust me I know it’s frightening but this is not just a girls rowing issue this is a town wide issue. A good-sized group of tax paying residents are less likely to be retaliated against than one person. 
In my opinion these men have entitlement issues and think they can do whatever they want with our girls including punish them when they themselves get in trouble . 
The inequality will only get worse if we keep allowing it. In 2018 the boys will have double the race the girls have. Stay tuned.
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Guest Thread Necromancer
On 10/7/2017 at 4:32 PM, Guest Guest said:

Here we go again.  A post from Facebook referring to Mr. P: 

Copied in case the people on Facebook delete it.  Nobody realizes that we have been through this before.  Kearny needs to hire another teacher and coach and tell Mr. P he can take all his day to practice his religion.

Here is the post on Facebook:

KHS Girls Crew Update 10/1/2017
The Inequality for girl’s crew in Kearny High School is not only still going on it is getting much worse.The DOE OCR continue to investigate. 
Just to be clear, I never criticized the current girls crew coach abilities to coach.
This fall for the first time in approximately 10 years the KHS girls are not rowing. Make no mistake, this is not the coach taking a break from his “volunteer” season that he doesn’t get paid for. There is no coincidence that his son got fired from coaching the girls after a police report was filed June 9 , 2017 against him . It is also not a coincidence that the girls aren’t rowing in the fall because all the fall races are on Sundays. 
KHS girls crew head coach gets paid roughly 11,199 for coaching our girls. That 11,199 is formally for spring coaching however, he has been coaching girls fall crew in addition to spring for about the last 10 years. However, fall crew is not an official school sport. 
One of the reasons fall crew is advantageous is the Head of Charles, which is the largest race in the world. The Head of the Charles is held in October on a Sunday. This race is like going to the Olympics for rowing. The KHS boys have been going to the Head of the Charles for years and at least two of the KHS boy rowers were recruited at the Head of the Charles for division one schools and scholarships. KHS girls are not allowed to go to this race because of the head coach’s religious beliefs. He published a book stating that his religious convictions did not want him to coach on Sundays. 
In 2011 a girl’s crew boat won the chance to compete at the Head of the Charles and The Current KHS girls crew coach had them scratched from the race without even telling them they won that once in a lifetime chance. I have proof of this from the president of the head of the Charles. 
If we are setting the record straight, let me be clear, this is not about religion. This is about the KHS girls head crew coach’s religion. Your religion and my religion do not count. My daughters 5th generation Irish Catholic history in this town is not good enough for this coach. In fact, he violated my daughters and many other girl rower’s civil rights by asking them what their religion is and pressuring them to join his religious group. Lawyers would have a field day with this. Lawyers would also have a field day with him violating our children’s civil rights by asking them their sexual orientation. The KHS LGBT community has also been treated less than by this person. This is a very exclusionary small group that our tax dollars are paying for and that is bringing down our entire town.
Generally speaking, Kearny is a blue-collar town and rowing is a white-collar sport.  If our girls receive scholarships for rowing this lifts the whole town up. Everything from property value to moral goes up (think about what soccer did for Kearny). Many do not know Kearny has two Olympic rowers. In addition to that, rowing is one of the few sports that almost everyone starts freshman year, which means everyone is on an equal playing field freshman year. Most of us know this is not the case for most other sports where children are sent to camps and clubs to hone their athletic skills before entering high school. 
What most people don’t know is that rowing scholarships available for girls are at an all-time high. There is more scholarship money out there for girl rowers than any other sport. Our Girls in KHS are missing this because they are not being seen by recruiters at the Sunday Philly Flicks and the Head of the Charles where the largest clusters of recruiters go to see the most number of teams in one place. 
It’s doesn’t matter if you have only boys or your child doesn’t row or that you don’t have kids. Our girls are being treated like second class citizens. This affects everyone. To do nothing is to allow this to continue. My daughter and myself were retaliated against because of this case at least ten times since 2014, the federal government has accepted most of these retaliations. That is why more than one person needs to speak up. That is why the Board of Education keeps asking me why are you the only one to speak up. Trust me I know it’s frightening but this is not just a girls rowing issue this is a town wide issue. A good-sized group of tax paying residents are less likely to be retaliated against than one person. 
In my opinion these men have entitlement issues and think they can do whatever they want with our girls including punish them when they themselves get in trouble . 
The inequality will only get worse if we keep allowing it. In 2018 the boys will have double the race the girls have. Stay tuned.

Too Long, Didn't Read

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It is my understanding that there is no Fall Crew program that is part of the High School athletic program.  So in all reality these events in the Fall are sponsored by private organizations, no different than the soccer clubs that student athletes play for in the off season.  So now you are mad at the volunteer coach who doesn't want to give up a Sunday to coach a race.  It seems to me that your complaint is with the Crew Parents Association who sponsor the Fall crew program.  If there is any discrimination here they would be the ones responsible and not the Department of Education.  I'm sure you are a member of that association and should discuss this issue with their leadership.  Maybe there are issues with the regular High School Crew program that the Board of Education and the DOE can, and should address but is this case they are not responsible.  The only thing they can do is shut down the use of the Schools equipment and facilities which just hurts all the kids. 

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  • 1 month later...

Doesn't make any sense that the crew team isn't part of the KHS athletic program. Where are you getting that from? 

If the "teacher" doesn't want to give up his Sundays, and races are held on Sundays, then someone else should coach the team.

This ******* should have been canned a decade ago.

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