*Princeton school district says it only requested woman's removal* <http://kstp.dayport.com/viewer/viewerpage.php?Art_ID=165008>
A Princeton woman says she is literally the victim of a modern-day ‘witch hunt’.
Julie Carpenter says she was fired from her job as a school bus driver and her neighbors are requesting her eviction because of her religious beliefs as a self-proclaimed ‘witch’. Carpenter is the wife of Jonathon Sharkey, a ‘vampire’ who is campaigning for governor.
"I can't sleep, my appetite's gone,” says Carpenter. “I haven't eaten in a couple of days.”
Carpenter says she never had a problem with her job until last week, when she mentioned being a witch. She says her employer said she was a great driver. Carpenter had been driving a bus for five years.
She said she never once discussed being a witch with any children she drove on her bus.
“I got to know them on a personal level,” she says. “I treated them with respect; my main goal is treat others as you would have yourself be treated.”
The Princeton school district request that she have no contact with students, and says she is not a role model.
The district says it can legally request her removal. “We have the right, that if we feel if somebody is not what we want them to be with children, or any other reason, all we have to do is let them know.”
Sharkey says they plan to sue the district, saying their action is a violation of their civil rights. “I think this was a witch hunt, a lynching,” says Sharkey. “They are appalled at what I am, so they took it out on my wife.”
Both parties my have convincing cases, attorneys say.
Civil rights attorney Larry Leventhal says that if the district has “a good faith belief that being a witch involves a complex of actions that puts the children in jeopardy, perhaps they can” dismiss Carpenter.