Judge: Fire teacher for Facebook comment

PATERSON, N.J., Nov. 9 (UPI) -- A tenured teacher in the impoverished city of Paterson, N.J., can be dismissed for calling her students "future criminals" on Facebook, a judge says.

The administrative law judge's ruling, released Tuesday, now goes to the state education commissioner, The Record of Hackensack reported. The commissioner will make the final decision on Jennifer O'Brien's future.

"O'Brien has demonstrated a complete lack of sensitivity to the world in which her students live," Judge Ellen Bass said. "The sentiment that a 6-year-old will not rise above the criminal element that surrounds him cuts right to the bone."

O'Brien has been teaching in Paterson since 1998. Bass said she might be able to teach in another district after receiving sensitivity training but found her relationship with Paterson was "damaged."

At a hearing in August, O'Brien said she wrote the post after a frustrating day in which one student hit her. The post, transmitted to 300 Facebook friends, quickly spread from there.

Bass said teachers do not have complete freedom of speech.

"In a public education setting, thoughtless words can destroy the partnership between home and school that is essential to the mission of the schools," the judge wrote.