Project Veritas: NJEA Sends Their Christmas Greetings to Governor Christie

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Dec 14, 2010, 12:33 ET

NJEA Officials Show No Limits Regarding Teacher Tenure in James O'Keefe's Latest Video

TRENTON, N.J., Dec. 14, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "He's a bastard," said Montclair Education Association President Marge Asterino about Governor Chris Christie in the latest Project Veritas video highlighting teacher tenure and the New Jersey Education Association. This is James O'Keefe's second video of this series highlighting abuses of teacher tenure law in New Jersey. "Teachers Unions Gone Wild," the first video of the series, prompted responses from the NJEA and Governor Christie and ultimately lead to a teacher suspension and newspaper retraction requests.

Tenured teachers are completely secure "unless, like, you beat up a kid," said an East Newark Education Association official in the new video.

"I don't believe, in this country, that anybody should be guaranteed a job for life after three years," Governor Christie told reporters at a news conference last week. "I don't think if you talk with the public about that that they would endorse this idea for a second. I personally believe that tenure, as it is constituted now in NJ, is an absolutely failed and antiquated system which needs to be substantially reformed or eliminated."

In O'Keefe's video, one educator said "we hate him" about Christie while others hurled invectives, calling him a "nut," "liar," and "anti-education."

"Kiddie fiddling" is what I'm being accused of, said O'Keefe's investigator Christopher Heneghan (posing as a teacher) to Newark Education Association President Annette Alston. In a subsequent conversation, a different educator asked Heneghan if he was tenured. When asked if this would make a difference, the educator responded "It could."

"Once again, the NJEA has shown that it knows no limits when it comes to protecting tenured teachers," said O'Keefe about his latest video. "But to protect someone they think is a teacher from prosecution for touching children in an inappropriate manner takes things to a whole new level."

O'Keefe's second video in the Teachers Union Gone Wild theme is located online here. Additionally, members of the media may request uncut footage for verification purposes.

Project Veritas was founded by James O'Keefe. The mission of Project Veritas is to investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions in order to achieve a more ethical and transparent society.

YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cmn3ma2358E

SOURCE Project Veritas