New Jersey teacher suspended after students write letters to sick inmate who killed cop

ORANGE (WABC) -- A New Jersey school district has suspended a teacher for having her third-grade class to write get well letters to a sick inmate convicted of killing a Philadelphia policeman.

Orange School Superintendent Ronald Lee said in a statement Friday that school administrators "vehemently deny" any knowledge of Marilyn Zuniga's assignment. Lee says preliminary inquiries found that Zuniga, who teaches at the Forest Street School, didn't seek approval nor were parents notified.

The letters were delivered to Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is serving life in prison for the 1981 murder of white Philadelphia Officer Daniel Faulkner. His family said he was hospitalized last month to be treated for complications from diabetes.

Outside Forest Avenue Elementary School Friday night, parents could not quite believe it: a lesson plan for third graders that's become a national controversy.

"She should have sent home permission slips to see if the parents had any input," said a parent.

But administrators say Zuniga sought no permission when she had her students write the cards to Abu-Jamal. Zuniga tweeted her kids wrote to him, "to lift his spirits".

The former Black Panther has maintained his innocence through multiple unsuccessful appeals. Along the way, he's written more than a half dozen books on social justice, and has become an international symbol for those who claim he's the victim of a racist system.

"Mumia is innocent and we need to bring him home," said Baruch College professor Johanna Fernandez, who calls Abu-Jamal the Nelson Mandela of her time.

For years she's been trying to free him. She's the one who presented him with those get well cards last Friday, when she took a picture with the ailing inmate.

And she says Zuniga did what any good teacher should do.

"Teachers have had to talk to their children about war about 9/11, so why shouldn't they talk to their children about a crisis that exists in their community. It's the hard reality of race in the United States," said Fernandez.

But the school superintendent Friday suspended the 25-year old teacher whose idea, he wrote, "is in no way condoned, nor does it reflect curriculum, program or activities approved by the district."

And in a time of tension between cops and minorities, parent Sharlynda Purefoy says she wants to be the one to teach her kids about racial justice.

"My nine-year old said to me, oh either the cops pull someone over or they beat someone up. It was really shocking," she said. "I would rather sit down and talk to my son so if he has any question I could try to answer them to the best of my ability. I wouldn't want a teacher to just decide we're gonna do this and that would be it."

The now suspended teacher did not come to her door when we came calling Friday night. In the meantime all this came to light during spring break. Administrators say they'll begin a full investigatioin when classes resume on Monday.

(Some information from the Associated Press.)