Kearny High School grad interviews Nobel prize-winning scientist

[Guest Curious in Kearny]

Kearny High employs a far-right-wing knuckle-dragger named Paszkiewicz. He masquerades as a history teacher but mainly uses the classroom as a soap box to preach his religion. He says things like dinosaurs were on Noah's ark and if you don't believe in Jesus, you belong in hell. I believe "you belong in hell" were his exact words. A few years ago, a student named Matt LaClair recorded him doing it. Then there was a meeting of some kind at the school where Paszkiewicz denied saying those things, only the kid recorded that too. That part was a hoot.

The story made The New York Times (partly because of KOTW) and Matt was interviewed on Anderson Cooper and a few other places, and for a while the whole town was talking about it. The ACLU got involved, and there was almost a lawsuit, but then there was a settlement of some kind, only the school district ended up paying all kinds of money in legal fees to fight LaClair, and then ended up doing exactly what he had asked them to do in the first place. It was pretty damn funny, partly because the low-class knuckle-draggers in town supported this buffoon of a "teacher." I always wondered why property values never went up in Kearny, considering that it's only ten miles west of midtown Manhattan. When this story broke and the entire town made itself look like something out of Duck Dynasty, it came into focus why people with money and a little intelligence don't want to move here. The knuckle-dragging religious zealots really did this town a lot of damage. We were all over the news as the most backward community in the state. You can still read about the story on the internet. Just Google Matthew LaClair.

As for Matt, it looks like he did OK. Apparently he's getting a masters degree and doing radio interviews of some very well-known people.

Isn't it kind of underhanded, wrong and sneaky to record someone without their permission ? And what does that say about Matt ?

[Guest Guest]

Kearny High employs a far-right-wing knuckle-dragger named Paszkiewicz. He masquerades as a history teacher but mainly uses the classroom as a soap box to preach his religion. He says things like dinosaurs were on Noah's ark and if you don't believe in Jesus, you belong in hell. I believe "you belong in hell" were his exact words. A few years ago, a student named Matt LaClair recorded him doing it. Then there was a meeting of some kind at the school where Paszkiewicz denied saying those things, only the kid recorded that too. That part was a hoot.

The story made The New York Times (partly because of KOTW) and Matt was interviewed on Anderson Cooper and a few other places, and for a while the whole town was talking about it. The ACLU got involved, and there was almost a lawsuit, but then there was a settlement of some kind, only the school district ended up paying all kinds of money in legal fees to fight LaClair, and then ended up doing exactly what he had asked them to do in the first place. It was pretty damn funny, partly because the low-class knuckle-draggers in town supported this buffoon of a "teacher." I always wondered why property values never went up in Kearny, considering that it's only ten miles west of midtown Manhattan. When this story broke and the entire town made itself look like something out of Duck Dynasty, it came into focus why people with money and a little intelligence don't want to move here. The knuckle-dragging religious zealots really did this town a lot of damage. We were all over the news as the most backward community in the state. You can still read about the story on the internet. Just Google Matthew LaClair.

As for Matt, it looks like he did OK. Apparently he's getting a masters degree and doing radio interviews of some very well-known people.

Isn't it kind of underhanded, wrong and sneaky to record someone without their permission ? And what does that say about Matt ?

It says that he recognized a renegade teacher who had been misusing his classroom for a long time and stepped in to stop him, and that he saw a corrupt school system that was pretending not to see the abuse, and he called it out.