Striking teachers jailed

VERONICA YANKOWSKI Striking Middletown teachers leave the county Hall of Records in Freehold in handcuffs on Tuesday after a Superior Court judge found them in contempt of court and ordered them remanded to the Monmouth County Correctional Institution.

Middletown Township Education Association (MTEA) members who told a Superior Court judge that they would not return to work despite a legal order to do so were remanded to the Monmouth County Correctional Institution, Freehold Township.

Judge Clarkson S. Fisher Jr. decided to impose the sanctions on Monday after a hearing at which the attorneys representing the Board of Education requested that any union member who stated that he or she would not return to work the next day receive jail time.

Alternately, the judge could have either fined union members a certain amount for every day they chose not to comply with the order or dismissed them from their jobs.

Fisher’s decision upheld previous decisions by N.J. courts that have ruled strikes by public employees illegal.

In a press conference after the hearing, union officials indicated that the five-day-old strike would continue until a settlement was reached.

With members appearing before the judge in alphabetical order Monday, the hearing was scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. yesterday. Some MTEA members were expected to stage an overnight vigil outside the Hall of Records on Main Street in Freehold Monday.

Sandy Oxfeld, attorney for the union, called the imposition of jail time as a sanction before monetary fines "draconian."

"If you jail a teacher, picture that school system when the teachers that have been jailed return," said Oxfeld, noting that jail time might leave "a sour taste" in the union’s mouth.

Robert Abbot, a 25-year veteran teacher whose wife, Susan, also teaches in the district, was the first union member to appear before Fisher. Abbot told the court that he did not intend to return to work despite the order to do so because the terms of the contract that the board has offered the union would place his family in a "negative financial spiral."

"I don’t think the board is being fair to us," said Abbot, the first to make the statement which several teachers who came after him echoed.

Steve Antonucci, a high school teacher and coach of the High School South football team, which won the state championship on Saturday, told the judge he did not intend to comply with the order either.

"I got into this business to teach children, and that is what I do," said Antonucci, whose wife, Tracy, is also a teacher in the district.

By agreement of the board’s attorney, both Susan Abbot and Tracy Antonucci were exempt from the sanction so that one parent could be home to care for the children.

Antonucci expressed reluctance to be away from his two young children and his pregnant wife, but told the court he "would do what he had to do" before the judge remanded him.

Teachers Michelle Armistead and Patricia Ayling were also remanded.

Several other teachers whose names fell at the beginning of the alphabet were ordered to pay $50 a day for every day they violated the court order to return to work. The teachers cited family obligations and health problems, including allergies and asthma.