Joe Acanfora

Joe Acanfora is an American educator and activist. Acanfora, who is gay, fought to become an earth science teacher in the public schools in Pennsylvania and Maryland in the early 1970s. His fight between 1971 and 1974 over a series of transfers and dismissals by authorities from his public school teaching assignments based upon his acknowledged homosexuality involved litigation through the federal court system; expert witness court testimony on the effect of an openly gay teacher on his students; extensive media coverage, including an episode appearance on CBS 60 Minutes; a "morality investigation" by the Penn State University Teacher Certification Council; and active participation of his parents in the public debate.

Childhood

Joseph Acanfora, III was born in 1950 to Leonore and Joseph Acanfora, II. At the age of five, Acanfora and his family moved from Jersey City to Brick Town, New Jersey. Acanfora is the oldest of three children, with two sisters born in 1961 and 1964. As a young child, Acanfora was interested in the weather, and this interest turned into a passion for meteorology. His mother said that Acanfora "...once tried to eat chicken wings so he could fly up to the clouds and look at them close up." This passion was also spurred by Acanfora's seventh grade science class teacher, who was a former Navy meteorologist. Acanfora graduated as valedictorian of his class from Brick Township High School, in Brick Township, New Jersey in 1968.

Penn State college days

Acanfora entered Pennsylvania State University in fall 1968, with the intent to major in meteorology and participate in the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. At the end of his sophomore year, Acanfora realized he wanted to teach and decided to major in secondary education. In his junior year, he joined, and soon thereafter became Treasurer of the Homophiles of Penn State, a newly formed campus organization dedicated to protecting the civil and constitutional rights of homosexuals and increasing public understanding of homosexuality. When the university refused to grant official recognition to the organization, four of its members, including Acanfora, instituted legal action to compel such recognition. That action, which ultimately was successful, received considerable local publicity, in the course of which Acanfora acknowledged that he was a homosexual.
At the time that his acknowledgment became public, Acanfora was fulfilling the student teaching assignment that was necessary to obtain his teaching degree from Penn State at Park Forest Junior High School located in State College, Pennsylvania. That school system and Penn State immediately suspended his student teaching status upon learning of his homosexuality and membership in HOPS. Acanfora thereupon instituted legal action seeking reinstatement as a student teacher, and obtained an immediate court injunction granting such reinstatement. He successfully completed the student teaching assignment with a grade of "B" and graduated from Penn State in June 1972.
As his senior year was coming to a close Acanfora applied for certification to teach in Pennsylvania. The question was raised by the Penn State dean of the College of Education, Dean Abram VanderMeer, as to whether a homosexual could have the requisite "good moral character" necessary for certification. This issue became a subject of great campus, county, and statewide controversy, including an interrogation of Acanfora by six Penn State deans who made up the University Teacher Certification Council. When the Council deadlocked 3–3 on whether or not Acanfora possessed a "good moral character", the matter was referred to the then Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, John C. Pittenger, for decision. With his Pennsylvania status in this undecided posture, Acanfora sought and found employment as a teacher with the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland.

Employment in Montgomery County, Parkland Junior High School

Spring & summer 1972

In April 1972, Acanfora applied for employment with the Board of Education of Montgomery County, Maryland. In the application process, he was asked to list his "professional, service and fraternal organizations", and for a list of "extracurricular activities" he had engaged in as a student. He did not list his membership in the Homophiles of Penn State in response to either question. In later court trials, Acanfora would admit that "...he realized that this information would be significant, but he believed disclosure would foreclose his opportunity to be considered for employment on an equal basis with other applicants."
On May 19, 1972, Acanfora was interviewed by a personnel specialist in the Department of Personnel for Montgomery County Public Schools. Following the interview, the personnel specialist filled out an "interview and recruitment form" which is a standard part of each applicant's file. Acanfora was rated above average in each of the seven categories contained on the form. In the "comments" section, the interviewer described Acanfora as "an above average earth science applicant." However, the interviewer had acquired a subjective "gut feeling" during the interview that Acanfora might be a homosexual, and so he added the following comment on the form: "Principal must interview before contracting; reservations."
Despite this caution, Acanfora was hired without further interviewing by the Assistant Principal of Parkland Junior High School in Rockville, Maryland, and entered into a one-year teaching contract. He was one of 719 new teachers hired in Montgomery County in 1972, out of 10,000 applicants. Acanfora commenced his duties as an eighth grade earth science teacher on August 29, 1972. His teaching performance was judged entirely satisfactory by his supervisor.

Suspended from teaching

On Friday, September 22, 1972, Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Pittenger called a press conference to announce that he had decided to certify Acanfora. That weekend, the New York Times and the Washington Evening Star reported the decision of the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, and noted that Acanfora was then currently teaching in Montgomery County, Maryland.
On the following workday, Monday, September 25, the principal of Acanfora's school addressed a memo to the Deputy Superintendent of Schools, Donald Miedema, recommending that Acanfora "be considered for removal from his teaching position as soon as possible... in anticipation of the disruption which can materialize when this becomes known in the community." Miedema, in turn, addressed a memo to the Board of Education advising that "one of the alternatives which we are exploring is the reassignment of Mr. Acanfora with full salary, to a position that does not require contact with youngsters."
On the following day, Miedema addressed a letter to Acanfora informing him that he had been transferred from his classroom teaching position to "a temporary alternate work assignment" in the headquarters building "while we gather information and assess the circumstances relating to this matter." The letter stated that the transfer was "in no way to be construed as punitive action. You will receive full salary while you are in this temporary work assignment."
Acanfora's "temporary alternate work assignment" was an office job created for him in which his duties largely were "make-work." It was revealed in court testimony that in that position, Acanfora was denied the opportunity to teach and deprived of the opportunity to gain experience and receive evaluations critical to a teacher's ability to secure renewal of teaching employment beyond the first year. Although Acanfora's salary was not reduced, the district court would find later that the transfer breached the "clearly implied promise of continued employment in a classroom teaching capacity for the duration of contract."
At trial in Baltimore Federal District Court, Miedema explained the factors which prompted him to transfer Acanfora. The newspaper stories reporting Acanfora's certification had recounted his suspension from his student teaching position and the controversy which had attended his request for certification, and Miedema wished to investigate the facts underlying the suspension and delay in certification. Additionally, Miedema was "concerned" that Acanfora might be "an activist, advertised homosexual." Finally, Miedema was worried about "community concern and reaction" to the newspaper disclosures that a homosexual was teaching in the school.
Montgomery County School officials took steps to assure that Acanfora would have no contact whatsoever with students. The junior high school needed to have him return to the school to assist in preparing his former students' grades, but he was instructed not to arrive at the school until the students had left for the day. On another occasion, when he requested the opportunity to participate in a teacher workshop, he was told that he could not attend because students would be present.
Although Acanfora performed the office work to which he was transferred, he repeatedly requested that he be reinstated to his classroom position. These requests were denied, Acanfora being advised that the transfer would remain in effect pending investigation, but that the transfer was "in no way to be construed as punitive action."
In fact, as the district court later found, the investigation conducted by respondents was "cursory." Miedema wrote to Penn State University and to the Secretary of Education for the State of Pennsylvania requesting information about Acanfora's suspension from his student teaching position and the controversy concerning his certification. Penn State responded that Acanfora had "successfully completed the student teacher assignment", and that the brief suspension therefrom had been motivated by his joining the lawsuit to obtain accreditation of HOPS, a suspension which all concerned had recognized to be an invasion of Acanfora's constitutional rights and which had been quickly corrected. The Secretary of Education responded that Acanfora's performance as a student and as a student teacher had been satisfactory in all respects, and that he had deemed Acanfora to be of "good moral character" in deciding to certify him. Both responses were received by Miedema in late October.
At no time throughout the "investigation" which was the ostensible reason for the "temporary" transfer, did school authorities make any inquiry concerning Acanfora's conduct as a classroom teacher at Parkland Junior High School, nor was he offered or provided a hearing of any kind.
Although court testimony revealed the "investigation" was completed upon receipt of the letters from Pennsylvania, and although those letters contained nothing but praise for Acanfora, Montgomery County Schools did not reinstate him to the classroom.
The transfer of Acanfora became a subject of great public interest, both locally and nationally. Acanfora accepted invitations to appear on several radio and television programs including CBS's 60 Minutes, which devoted a 20-minute segment to the case, entitled "The Case of Joe Acanfora". The substance of his remarks in all those appearances was threefold, that:

employment discrimination against homosexuals was unjust,
he would never discuss his sexual orientation with students in or out of school, and
he hoped that greater public understanding of homosexuals would develop.