Kearny High Cheers, Jeers

KEARNY HIGH JEERS, CHEERS

Kearny school says action was taken against teacher who preached religion

By Ken Thorbourne, The Jersey Journal, November 16, 2006

KEARNY - The high school student who blew the whistle on a teacher who preached about heaven and hell in the classroom felt the wrath of fellow students yesterday, even as school officials divined if the teacher would be subject to further "corrective action."

Matthew LaClair, the 16-year-old junior who took issue with - and recorded - history teacher David Paszkiewicz, said classmates both shunned and cursed him yesterday in the wake of a front-page story in yesterday's Jersey Journal spotlighting LaClair complaints about Paszkiewicz's religious rants in the classroom.

"I lost a few friends," LaClair said. "I don't really hold it against them. I hope over time we'll get back together."

LaClair, who began taping Paszkiewicz during the first week of school, captured the 14-year teacher saying that students who don't understand that God suffered for their pains "belong in Hell."

The teacher also shot down evolution and the "Big Bang" theory in favor of creationism and said dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark, according to LaClair.

For the second day in a row, Paszkiewicz, a youth pastor at Kearny Baptist Church and a teacher at Kearny High since 1992, didn't return phone calls seeking comment.

But Superintendent of Schools Robert Mooney and Kearny High School Principal Alfred Somma defended him as an outstanding teacher and said "corrective action" - which they didn't define - had already been taken against him. Further action might be taken if necessary, they said.

"I think he (Paszkiewicz) was trying to have a high-level discussion with his students," Mooney added. "Right now he has to be very careful. But I also don't want in the long run for him to throttle down the level of discussion based on this issue."

Mooney said Paszkiewicz made his comments in the context of discussions about the effect religion had on the shaping of America.

But teachers have to be careful not to hold up their own personal beliefs as gospel, said Jeremy Leaming, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

"A public school teacher is a state actor," Leaming said. "In that capacity he is supposed to insure there is a separation of government and religion."

As LaClair spoke outside the Devon Street school, some students yelled taunts at him while others glared.

"Mr. Paszkiewicz is an outstanding man," said 16-year-old Stephanie Formoso, a member of the crew team coached by Paszkiewicz and one of his history students.

"Matt set him up," Formoso added. "Mr. Paszkiewicz would always say (when he spoke about religion) 'In my opinion.' He never pushed his beliefs on anyone."

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