Westfield can fire elementary school teacher for 'threatening' gun comments: arbitrator

Mike Deak | Bridgewater Courier News

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WESTFIELD – An arbitrator has ruled that the Westfield Board of Education has just cause to fire a third-grade teacher at Tamaques School for making what the school district calls "threatening" comments about his guns.

But the teacher, Frank Fuzy, has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the school district and the teachers union over violating his freedom of speech, creating a hostile work environment, defamation, forcing him to attend "phony psychotherapy" sessions and discriminating against him because of his age, sex and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, among other charges.

‘Threats’

The Westfield Board of Education filed the tenure charges against Fuzy on Dec. 27, 2018. Fuzy, a resident of Colonia, was hired as a third-grade teacher in 1995 and was named in 2013 New Jersey Agricultural Teacher of the Year. Fuzy received "effective" or better evaluations throughout his time at the school.

However, in 2014, he received a four-day suspension after throwing Post-It notes at a student and hitting her in the face, according to the charges. Fuzy completed counseling after the incident, including anger management sessions.

The tenure charges allege that the teacher frequently commented to other staff members that he owns multiple guns and keeps a handgun in the glove compartment in his car and that he would run out to his car if he needed a gun. Fuzy has denied telling anyone that he kept a gun in his vehicle.

The district also said he frequently posts about guns on social media.

Those comments and actions, the school district charged, "have served to create an atmosphere at the school whereby other staff members are intimidated and fearful of imminent harm."

The charges say that staff members "routinely look over their shoulder when they walk on school premises" because of his comments.

The school board, according to the arbitrator's ruling, "likens threats of violence in reference to gun to the equivalent of yelling 'fire' in a private movie theater."

READ: Delaware man accused of bringing gun to NJ school indicted

In addition, according to the charges, Fuzy made threatening remarks to another staff member in connection with principal David Duelks asking him to observe another teacher. Fuzy, who expressed anger about the request, told another staff member that he is "six feet tall, weighs 230 pounds and has 26 guns."

Fuzy testified in the arbitration hearing that he owns five guns – three handguns and two rifles – and that he has completed background checks and only uses the weapons at ranges.

The charges say he repeated that statement about seven times.

The district also alleged that Fuzy had stated, "what are you, stupid?" to his third graders and had caused them to cry.

In her Dec. 16 ruling, arbitrator Joyce Klein ruled that Westfield had "good cause to determine that it cannot expose the staff, students and parents at Tamaques School to the risk posed by Mr. Fuzy's repeated and angry threatening statements."

Klein further noted that the threats coupled with his "repeated expressions of anger disproportionate to the situation" warrant Fuzy's dismissal.

Klein noted that Fuzy's "inability to restrain his comments," including calling a student stupid, would not alone support his termination, but reinforces that his "lack of self-restraint under stress is not appropriate" for a teacher and role model for his third graders.

Klein, however, dismissed three other allegations against Fuzy, including that he picked up a student by her feet and embarrassed a student in class.

Klein also noted that there is "no doubt" Fuzy has been an effective teacher and has "a uniform record of good achievement" during his 23 years at the school. She also said that Fuzy has many supporters in the school district and colleagues have attested to his teaching abilities, care for the school, establishment of a garden at the school and other achievements.

But, Klein wrote, "none of these achievements outweigh or mitigate the impact of Mr. Fuzy's threatening statements regarding his stature and gun ownership."

In June, police charged Thomas Wilkie, of Delaware, with possessing a handgun and hollow-nosed bullets while in he was sitting in a SUV in the Tamaques School parking lot.

Violation of rights

But Fuzy, who was suspended from his job on Jan. 24, 2018, is fighting back.

In September, he and his wife Marie, who also teaches third grade at Tamaques, filed a 54-page lawsuit in federal court against the school district, the local and state teachers unions and his former attorneys.

The lawsuit says the tenure charges were "a grab bag of old charges, non-charges and unsubstantiated...gossip."

Fuzy charges that a "substantial motivating factor" behind the school district's actions is that he is a legal gun owner protected by the Second Amendment of the Constitution. Fuzy also charges that his First Amendment right of free speech was violated because of his talk about guns. He also charges that his gender and ADHD handicap were also motivating factors.

Fuzy also alleged that the unions failed to represent him in the dispute with the school district and "joined in a conspiracy" with the school district to violate his rights. The unions have denied those charges.

He also charges that his initial law firm, Caruso, Smith and Picini, "flagrantly violated its duty of loyalty" to him and withdrew from the case soon before the arbitration, causing him $100,000 in legal fees. The law firm had been retained through the union. The law firm has yet to respond to the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, Fuzy, who has an NRA bumper sticker on his car, contends that statements others made about remarks he reportedly made about the number of guns he owns and that he kept a gun in his car were false and "had the intended effect of creating a hysterical fear of (Fuzy) and rendered him an outcast and scapegoat."

The district has "shamelessly and recklessly used notorious mass shootings to whip up anti-gun owner animus against" Fuzy, the suit argues. Fuzy said he has never discussed guns with students.

Fuzy also charges that he has been subjected to biased comments against middle-aged men.

He also contends there was a subtle "anti-male bias" against him though he was only the second male elementary teacher hired in Westfield. Only in the past few years, the lawsuit says, after the peak of his involvement with bodybuilding did his stature and sex become "perceived as intimidating or otherwise troubling."

Fuzy also alleges that his dress became an issue despite the fact there was no dress code and women staffers "could wear virtually anything" including shorts or a sun dress while male teachers had to wear a shirt, long pants and a tie.

One time, Fuzy said, he was told by an administrator on a hot day, "I should be able to tell the difference between my teachers and someone that works at Trader Joe's."

Fuzy argues that he "excelled" professionally and personally despite being diagnosed with ADHD when he was 10. However, the teacher said he was subjected to "extensive harassment" because of ADHD, including a directive not to talk about his condition to students which "communicated a profound sense of stigma and isolation."

In the lawsuit, Fuzy also denied throwing the Post-It notes at the student, but went along with the anger management therapy on advice of the union. Fuzy said that an administrator's observation that he would get "red with anger" was wrong, because had a rare disease called Polycythermia Vera, a condition that caused his face to flush. He charges the district ignored medical documentation about his condition.

Fuzy argues that his suspension was illegal, and he denies ever making a statement about owning 26 guns.

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After the suspension, the district compelled Fuzy to undergo an "intrusive psychiatric examination" and the psychiatrist found him "fit for duty."

The school district has been given a time extension to file a response to the lawsuit. An initial scheduling conference is scheduled for Feb. 5 before federal Magistrate Judge Edward Kiel in Newark.

Staff Writer Mike Deak: 908-243-6607; mdeak@mycentraljersey.com