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Marylin Zuniga listens as the People's Organization for Progress holds a "teach-in" Tuesday at International Faith Ministries where local civil rights activists, members of the community and teachers gathered to voice their support for the Orange teacher. (Amanda Marzullo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

ORANGE — As its meeting stretched past midnight, the Orange school board on Wednesday voted to terminate the employment of a third-grade teacher for allowing her students to write "get well" letters to a convicted cop killer.

But that decision was not immediately clear after board members cast their votes.

Over the course of about 90 minutes inside the auditorium at Orange Preparatory Academy, supporters of Marylin Zuniga called for her reinstatement in public comments to the board.

Then, in under three minutes, the board unanimously approved a personnel agenda and abruptly adjourned the meeting without discussing or explaining what was just voted on.

Outside the school building soon afterward, school board Vice President Jeffrey Wingfield declined to explain whether the board had voted to terminate Zuniga's employment.

"Let her tell you," said Wingfield, referring to Zuniga. "I want her to tell you."

After being contacted by a reporter, Orange Superintendent Ronald Lee confirmed in an email on Wednesday afternoon that the board had voted to terminate Zuniga's employment as part of the personnel agenda.

"Lastly, as this is a personnel issue, I have no further comments on this matter," Lee wrote.

In a phone interview on Wednesday, Zuniga's attorney, Alan Levine, said that by firing her, school officials "abdicated their responsibility to the community and to the children of the school district."

"They lost a teacher that everybody agreed was a remarkable teacher," Levine said. "There isn't a school district around that wouldn't be happy to have Marylin Zuniga teach in it."

Zuniga is now considering legal action to challenge her termination, which could take the form of an arbitration proceeding or a lawsuit, according to Levine.

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A first-year teacher at Forest Street Elementary School, Zuniga has said her students asked her about writing the "get well" letters to Mumia Abu-Jamal after she told them he was gravely ill. She later posted a tweet about her students' letters being delivered to Abu-Jamal.

Abu-Jamal, who was formerly on death row, is serving a life sentence for killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. Abu-Jamal has been hospitalized with complications from diabetes.

After learning about the students' letters through news reports, school officials suspended Zuniga with pay on April 10. In a statement at the time, officials said they had no prior knowledge about the letters, and said Zuniga did not seek prior approval or notify parents about this "unauthorized activity."

The controversy sparked international attention with Zuniga receiving support from civil rights activists, educators from around the country and others who claimed she was teaching compassion to her students.

But Zuniga also received intense criticism from some school parents and law enforcement officials who expressed outrage over writing "get well" letters to a convicted cop killer.

In her remarks to the school board on Tuesday, Zuniga said she should be returned to the classroom.

"I stand in front of you today because there's a community behind me, and because there's people here of the community, of the Orange community and the surrounding communities, that support me," Zuniga said. "There's people around the nation who support me, who believe I need to be reinstated and I believe that I need to be reinstated.

"My students need me in the classroom. My students have requested that I come back to the classroom," Zuniga added. "They miss me and they've been asking for me, and that's what's most important. No one is thinking about the students."

Levine argued to the board that it had failed to follow its own bylaws and provide Zuniga with a formal notice of the specific acts she is accused of performing to justify her termination.

Melvin Randall, the school board attorney, told Levine that Zuniga had received a letter listing the various board policies she allegedly violated, and stating that she deviated from the board's approved curriculum for her third-grade class.

Randall also indicated Zuniga had meetings with school personnel in which she was informed of the acts in question, but Levine countered that "meetings are not the same thing as notice."

As members of the public later addressed the board, the people voicing support for Zuniga included local civil rights activists, fellow educators and elected officials, including Essex County Freeholder President Britnee Timberlake.

Holding Zuniga's hand in the air, Timberlake told the board members "you ought to be ashamed of yourself for trying to crucify her."

Zuniga's brother, Rob, said he "couldn't be prouder of my little sister."

"What hurt me the most is to see my sister suffer every day she's been away from those children," said Rob Zuniga, adding that school officials had claimed "you always put the children first."

"If that's true, give them back the teacher they deserve," he said.

But one of the more than 30 speakers at Tuesday's meeting - Orange resident Gloria Stewart - told the board that Zuniga should not be reinstated.

"Even when I heard that the letters were written...because of compassion, you could've written to somebody in a nursing home," Stewart said. "You could've written to someone else that was sick to show compassion."

Bill Wichert may be reached at bwichert@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillWichertNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.