Teacher in Trouble Over Facebook Comment About Missing 5-year-old

VINELAND — A teacher has been removed from the classroom after making a comment on Facebook about a 5-year-old girl who police believe may have been abducted from Bridgeton last week.

In a statement the district said it was made aware of an "offensive and unacceptable social media post allegedly made by a district employee" and began an investigation which discovered the post was made by a teacher. The district did not disclose the teacher's identity in its statement.

Jennifer Hewitt Bishop, an in-class resource teacher, was reacting to a report that Dulce Maria Alavez's mother was sitting in a car while her daughter and son played on the nearby playground at a Bridgeton park, Vineland school district executive director of personnel Joe Rossi told the Vineland Daily Journal.

A school official told the Vineland Daily Journal the comment read: “They’re Mexican, it’s their culture. They don’t supervise their children like we do.”

The child went missing from the park on Sept. 16 and witnesses told police that she was seen walking toward a red van with a man, according to Bridgeton police.

Dulce remained missing Wednesday morning and was at the top of the FBI's Most Wanted Kidnapping and Missing Person List.

The district said that "appropriate action" was taken and an "outcome" will be reached after discussion with the Board of Education's Personnel Committee.

According to public records Bishop had been with the district for seven years at the John H. Winslow Elementary School at a salary of $57,983.