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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, N.J. -- A New Jersey school district has fired a teacher whose third-grade class wrote get-well letters to a sick prison inmate convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer.

The board of education made its decision Tuesday night after hearing from teacher Marilyn Zuniga and several of her supporters, Orange School Superintendent Ronald Lee tells NJ.com.



Zuniga, a first-year teacher at Forest Street Elementary School, was suspended last month after telling the board she had made a mistake.



The students' letters were delivered to Mumia Abu-Jamal in prison following his hospitalization for what his family said was treatment for complications from diabetes.

The former Black Panther leader, who was formerly on death row, is serving a life sentence for killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.



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, NJ.com reported. She later tweeted about her students' letters being delivered.

Zuniga's lawyer, Alan Levine, said board members "abdicated their responsibility" to the community and the children. He said Zuniga may take legal action to regain her job.

"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."

School officials said they learned about the students' letters through news reports. They said Zuniga did not seek prior approval or notify parents about this "unauthorized activity."