Court upholds firing of teacher who was NAMBLA member

freedomforum ^ | 7.19.03 | associated press

[freepatriot32]

NEW YORK — A federal appeals court has ruled that New York City was justified in dismissing a high school teacher who was found to be a member of the North American Man/Boy Love Association.

The former teacher, Peter Melzer, had the constitutional freedom-of-association right to be a member of the organization, but his membership caused sufficient disruption to the school to warrant the firing, the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found.

Melzer, who had been a science teacher at the Bronx High School of Science for more than 25 years, was dismissed in 2000 by the Board of Education. He claimed his firing was an abridgment of his First Amendment rights.

His membership in NAMBLA, which advocates sexual relations between men and adolescents, was first reported by television station WNBC in 1993. Parents threatened to withdraw their children from the school, according to The New York Times, after the WNBC report.

Melzer's lawyer, Eugene Nathanson, said the decision, made public yesterday, represented a threat to the rights of government employees.

Related

ACLU asks federal judge to dismiss case against man-boy sex group Lawyers defending North American Man/Boy Love Association say its publications, Web site are protected speech. 07.18.01

[Enterprise]

The headline I would like to read would be:

Court upholds firing squad execution of teacher who was NAMBLA member

[cinFLA]

His membership in NAMBLA, which advocates sexual relations between men and adolescents,,/i>

Interesting how an organization that advocates illegal activity keeps on chugging.

[Lijahsbubbe]

This PC semantics BS is sick. The headline should be "Court upholds firing of a pervert that believes molesting boys is okay. (then ideally, the firing squad would be added).

[Lijahsbubbe]

Yeah, how is that possible?

[xrp]

That's a bit extreme, if the teacher hadn't committed any crimes yet, but definitely this is for the better as it is removing a clear and present danger from the vicinity of the schoolchildren.

Someone who is an advocate of this kind of behaviour should not be allowed to work in a position where he would be alone with potential victims.

[Puppage]

...... keeps on chugging

Ah.....Oh, never mind.

[SandRat]

The headline I would like to read would be: Court upholds firing squad execution of teacher who was NAMBLA member and his RDDB ACLU defenders.

Short of that I want to see his face and his full ID plastered in every post office, on every "Megan's Law" offenders page and in every clip board for every police officer with the warning not to be within 100 meters of any child under the age of 21.

[JoJo Gunn]

This is a setback to the perverts of GLSEN, no doubt.

[jonascord]

I offer, as food for thought, the following:
People who want to "love" children do not find jobs in retirement homes, or sewage treatment plants, or assembly lines. They become teachers, daycare workers, coaches. Places and positions where they will be trusted by their prey. How many have known the "creepy" coach, or the scout master that made us uncomfortable, or the priest that was always touching?

I agree about a firing squad being too extreme, beating to death with a 2x4 in public, and charging the family for the cost ot the lumber is much more appropriate...

[Riverman94610]

They are even worse than that.They advocate sex with young children and their motto is"After eight,its too late!"
Now THAT is frigging sick.

[beckett]

His membership in NAMBLA, which advocates sexual relations between men and adolescents...

Apparently the AP reporter never even bothered to learn that NAMBLA stands for North American Man BOY Love Association. NAMBLA members don't wait until a kid is an adolescent to start molesting him. There is no lower age limit on when they'll start molesting kids.

In fact I saw an ambush interview on TV once when I lived in NYC. The TV reporter cornered some mucky-muck in NAMBLA and asked him some pointed questions. One of them was, "Is it OK to have sexual relations with an infant child?" The NAMBLA guy replied, "Well, under certain cirumstances, if attitudes towards sex change as they should, that would be OK, yes."

[Lijahsbubbe]

their motto is"After eight,its too late!"

After reading that, I would say burning at the stake, upside down, would be too good for them.

[DannyTN]

Headline should be

"Court does right thing for wrong reason".

The court should have upheld the ruling because he advocates illegal activities and his activities represent a clear and present danger to children.

That his membership caused a disruption by parents and other members should not have been the reason.

If disruption is the sole justification for dismissal, then a handful of atheist parents could threaten to withhold their children from public schools because a teacher is Chrisian. That could then become grounds for a small group to effectively veto anyone on any grounds.

[Clint Lippo]

What's the big deal? Now he can get the job at the day-care center that he's always coveted.

[Dimensio]

It's possible because there's no law against advocating the legalization of a currently criminal act. If NAMBLA as an organization does anything illegal, it's not a part of their "official" face.

[Dimensio]

Not that I'm even remotely close to a fan, but I believe that the "sex by eight or its too late" motto is a misattribution. It might have been a real motto, but I don't believe that it was NAMBLA's.

I could be wrong, though.

[inquest]

Good, so does this mean we can finally start weeding out Communists too, or are they still a protected species?

[dufekin]

NAMBLA is a criminal gang of the worst calliber, essentially a sodomite-rape-child abuse ring, and should be found to be so, and as such anyone who is now or has ever been a member should be sentenced to a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 75 years at hard labor.

Break them just like the Mafia or any other huge criminal gang. Or like any terrorist organization. Or like the Communist Party. It's what they are.

[Dimensio]

If NAMBLA can be shown to be, in and of itself, anything more than an advocacy group for lowering age of consent laws, then you might have a point, however there is no legal prescedent for sentencing a person to jail time without establishing that they have committed any criminal acts simply because they are associated with an organization that advocates the legalization of a currently illegal act, no matter how disgusting the act may be.

Or like the Communist Party.

The last time I checked, it was not illegal to be a member of the Communist Party.