A petition is calling for the firing of a Monmouth County vice principal after he was videoed throwing beer on people at a Smithville restaurant after his wife's allegedly transphobic rant.
Lisa Smurro first captured attention after video showed her loudly complaining about a man she said was using the women's restroom at Fred and Ethel's Lantern Light Restaurant and Tavern.
She continued to describe a trans woman.
When Smurro and her husband went to leave, she confronted the woman recording her. At that point her husband, Michael Smurro, walked over and said, "Here you go, Pal," and threw his beer toward a table off-camera.
The video went viral, and soon led to an investigation by the administration in the Neptune Township School District, where Michael Smurro is a middle school vice principal.
It appears now that the district has taken action, but it will not say what that is.
"Our response to the well-publicized incident involving a Neptune Board of Education staff member has been swift and serious but cannot be made public," Superintendent Tami Crader wrote in an online statement Thursday. "We understand and share the public’s concern and frustration but cannot share more than an assurance that this situation is being addressed, not swept under the rug, and with our students’ social-emotional wellbeing at the forefront of any of our actions."
But a petition started by the Philly Metro Activism Network wants Smurro fired.
"A violent, transphobic and hateful physical aggressor does not belong anywhere near NJ children," reads a petition that has surpassed 3,100 signatures late Thursday afternoon. "We demand that he be removed from his position IMMEDIATELY, without pay, until a full investigation of this situation is complete."
The group also has planned a demonstration in the Neptune Township Board of Education parking lot for 1:45 to 6 p.m. Friday.
