Right-wing 'crusaders' unjustly drove a top New Jersey teacher from his job: editorial board

A New Jersey history teacher named Scott Kercher, locally beloved and one of the top teachers in the state, was forced out of his job by right-wing activist officials in the Sparta Township for discussing racial issues with students honestly — and the NJ.com editorial board furiously condemned the situation in an article published over the weekend.

"In 2020, more than 400 former students wrote a letter in the wake of George Floyd’s killing, saying they didn’t think Sparta was doing enough to prepare them for a diverse world. Kercher, a social studies and languages supervisor, says he happily stepped in to help. It would have been negligent not to," wrote the board. "Having just created Sparta’s diversity council when he came to the district in 2019, he set to work, inviting the primary authors of the alumni letter to join his efforts ... Kercher and the district’s only Black administrator, Saskia Brown, put together a virtual community screening in which people of color in Sparta shared their own experiences of being discriminated against, followed by a discussion. Called 'Our Voices United,' their effort won an award from Kean University and was recognized by the state School Boards Association."

But by doing so, Kercher angered local officials, with the superintendent telling him directly that his project made the town look bad.

"I was told by someone close to the board that I’d better watch out," he said.

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And last April, the school board refused to renew his contract, without giving him any reason why.

As the editorial board noted, Kercher's critics came up with a few excuses for why he was fired, but none of them made sense.

"They dug through Kercher’s personal Facebook page and took a screenshot of an anti-Trump post dating back to 2016, before he even came to Sparta, then quoted it out of context," wrote the board. "They tried to scapegoat him for security problems at a Model UN dance back in 2020, even though the folks most adamant about this issue had previously voted to renew Kercher in both 2020 and 2021, after that field trip."

Kercher now teaches in New York State, and Sparta still has the diversity position — but can't find anyone to fill it after having forced out the last occupant for doing his job.

He told NJ.com, “Everything we were working towards in Sparta was undone because teachers are afraid to engage in these conversations. They’re afraid they’re going to be next.”

This comes as a multi-year focus by Republican officials on stamping out supposed teaching of "critical race theory" in schools — a graduate-level philosophy that focuses on the role of racism in shaping American law and institutions — has expanded to go after virtually anyone teaching about racial concepts.

One highly popular Black principal in North Texas was forced out of his job by local officials, supposedly for pushing a liberal agenda, but he appears to have done nothing more than tell parents he would be fighting racism in the school.