Keyport mayor says no one expected jail time
A Middletown history teacher, he recounts his two days behind bars
By darlene diebold
Staff Writer
KEYPORT — Like other Middletown teachers, Mayor Kevin Graham served two days in jail last week for contempt of court for going on strike, which is illegal for the state’s public employees

Kevin Graham

"I love my students very much, and I cannot wait to go back to teaching. We did not mean to harm the parents or our students. We were just standing up for what we believe in," said Graham, a seventh-grade history teacher at Thompson Middle School.

"We were not arrested; we were cited for contempt of court," he said Sunday night. "Nobody has a record. We have never been arrested or convicted of a crime. We were jailed for failure to comply with a judge’s order to return to work."

Graham went to jail on Wednesday afternoon and was released on Friday afternoon.

Graham said that although nobody wanted to be put in jail to begin with, they would have stayed as long as their union, the Middletown Township Education Association, asked them to.

"It was an interesting experience, to say the least," he said. "We received no special treatment, and we had to follow the same procedures as everyone else. We were woken up at 6 a.m. for the head count, and lights out was at 9:30 p.m.

"There was very little to do, and we were starved for information. It took a lot of courage for everyone to go to jail, but we all felt that it had to be done. There hadn’t been a teacher incarcerated in 20 years, so nobody thought it would have happened."

Graham said that the male teachers were treated with "incredible professionalism" by the guards at the Monmouth County jail, and that Sheriff Joe Oxley visited them everyday to let them know what was going on. "They were very good to us, and it made the experience a little better. The camaraderie of the guys that we were with was the only positive experience. It is not a nice place. It is a jail. There are no types of luxuries there."

Graham said that he was not sure if the teachers were going to be allowed to discuss the strike with their students, but if given the chance, he definitely would, he said.

"If I am given the opportunity, I will tell them the truth. I will tell my students that it was something that we felt that we had to do. I do not think that it’s fair that teachers are not allowed to strike, yet there is no binding arbitration to give us a fair chance. Many times throughout history, people did things that were deemed illegal to make change. All we want is fairness," he said.

During an interview in front of the Hall of Records on Main Street in Freehold the day before he was incarcerated, Graham said, "We’ve got a lot of very brave people who are willing to be taken off to jail for standing up for what they believe in. That is all we are doing."

Graham said that although he was in jail himself, Keyport was in good shape, because Council President Wade Pedersen could act on his behalf for everything except weddings. Mayor Rick O’Neil from Highlands had agreed to perform weddings for Graham if he was not home in time. As it turned out, he was able to perform two over the weekend.