ORANGE, N.J. – Left-wing political activists are rushing to defend a New Jersey teacher who was suspended for goading her third-grade students into writing “get well” letters to convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

“She tried not only to instruct her children in terms of skill, but also tried to help them understand what it means to be a compassionate human being,” according to Larry Hamm, chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress – a “politically progressive” group “working for racial, social and economic justice.”

“We need to support this young woman … her heart is the right heart,” Hamm told about 500 supporters who gathered at Newark’s Bethany Baptist Church Monday night, according to NJ.com.

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Among the crowd was Cornel West, a professor at Princeton and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Forest Street Elementary School teacher Marylin Zuniga created the controversy when she sent out a message over Twitter April 4.

“Just dropped off these letters to comrade Johanna Fernandez. My 3^rd graders wrote Mumia to lift up his spirits as he is ill. #freemumia,” Zuniga tweeted.

Fernandez is a professor at Baruch College in New York City and friend of Mumia Abu-Jamal. She’s among many far-left “activists” who want the public to believe Abu-Jamal is innocent.

She also discussed the letters in a Facebook post last Monday.

“We shared a touching moment with Mumia in an effort to raise his spirits,” Fernandez posted.

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“Two teachers delivered letters to us that their students had written to Mumia. One batch came from a 3rd grade class taught by Ms. Marylin Zuniga in Orange, New Jersey. The other batch was from a group of high school students in the Philadelphia Student Union, which fights for school reform and is led by Mr. Hiram Rivera.”

The situation sparked a public outrage, and was featured on Fox News’ “The Kelly File,” where former Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police president Rich Costello said “it’s both alarming and outrageous that any teacher would use a group of innocent seven-year-olds to promote a twisted agenda glorifying murder, glorifying hatred and glorifying violence.”

“He shot (Faulkner) in the back and then as the officer lay slumped against a wall helpless, he leaned over and shot him between the eyes,” Costello told host Megyn Kelly.

Abu-Jamal, 60, was convicted of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981, and is currently serving a life sentence after his supporters worked to successfully remove him from death row. He now suffers health issues related to diabetes, NJ.com reports.

“Activists” who addressed the crowd in Newark contend students dreamed up the idea to offer well-wishes to Abu-Jamal, and said that the teacher’s suspension afterward shows district officials don’t understand the plight of “black and brown” students.

Many of those students have relatives in prison, “activist” Nyle Fort, a friend of Zuinga, told the crowd, according to the news site.

“I think it’s really important to realize that black and brown schools have fundamentally different relationships to prison and the people inside of them than in white neighborhoods,” he said. “The idea that a young person that’s in third grade should not be talking to an inmate fundamentally does not work in our neighborhoods.”

Others, like Fernandez, attempted to compare Abu-Jamal to Nelson Mandela, who was once considered a terrorist by the United States.

Fernandez “repeatedly compared Abu-Jamal to Mandela, who was given the label while serving a 28-year prison term for his political work fighting apartheid and racial inequality in (South Africa),” NJ.com reports.

Fort also attempted to juxtapose Abu-Jamal’s situation with the far-left’s view of Christopher Columbus.

“The idea that it’s not controversial to teach children about Christopher Columbus, who is an architect of genocide, who is a serial rapist, who is a founder of white supremacy, but they can’t write letters to Mumia, is unbelievably hypocritical,” he said.

Hamm told Liberation.org the People’s Organization is “calling for everyone to write, email and call in for Marilyn (sic) now, just like we need you to do the same for Mumia.” Hamm, the People’s Organization for Progress, and Liberation News are apparently so concerned about Zuniga they misspelled her first name.

District officials suspended the teacher with pay last week over news of the letters, which they said were not an authorized assignment. They are currently conducting an investigation.

Many parents who spoke with NJ.com seem to think the suspension was a good idea, and clearly do not “stand with Mumia and by Marilyn Zuniga,” as called for by the People’s Organization.

“To me, that’s not right. You can’t do that,” Albert Perez, father of an 8-year-old boy in Zuniga’s class, told NJ.com. “It’s not right writing a letter to a cop killer.”

Mike Brown, parent of a kindergartener at Forest Street Elementary, agrees with Perez.

“If that was her personal business, then she could have kept that her personal business, but the children should have never gotten involved in that,” Brown told the news site.

Others agreed that Zuniga should have left her personal politics at home.

“If she wanted to do it on her own, she could have … That’s her prerogative,” said Lorraine Thomas, mother of a fourth-grader. “But to have the third-graders, or any grade, do something like that, I don’t think that was appropriate.”

“There’s nothing wrong with caring about people, but I don’t know why she would choose this guy,” Thomas told NJ.com. “They have people in nursing homes that are by themselves – write them a letter, send them a ‘get well’ card.”

But Zuniga’s Twitter activity makes it clear the student letters had much more to do with her personal politics than any lesson about compassion for others.

“The mind of the child is where the revolution begins!” she tweeted.

Zuniga deleted her Twitter account amid the controversy.