Wayne Teacher Who Bullied Students Terminated

WAYNE, N.J. — Howard Smith, the township teacher who got into a physical altercation with a high school student and bullying middle school students has been fired.

Joel M. Weisblatt, an arbitrator ordered that Smith be dismissed from his position as a tenured teacher with the Wayne Public School District after the Wayne Township Board of Education brought tenure charges against Smith in April, alleging that he was involved in a series of bullying incidents during the 2015-16 school year.

The Board of Education terminated Smith's employment with the district Sept. 8, NorthJersey.com reported. An agenda item on the board's meeting agenda that night shows that a physical education teacher was terminated from his or her job that night.

Related: Wayne Teacher Who Bullied Students Should Be Fired: Arbitrator

Video footage shows that Smith was involved with a physical altercation in the Wayne Valley High School boys' locker room in February 2015 while he was a coach there. The footage showed Smith being "aggressive with his hands" and cornered the student during the incident.

Smith was also involved in four separate incidents of improper conduct while he was health teacher at George Washington Middle School during the 2015-16 school year.

The board argued during arbitration that Smith's "habitually negative behavior" and "ongoing conduct" mandated his termination.

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