What do you do if you’ve been arrested once, fired twice from teaching positions, caught with pornography on your school computer and had your troubled past exposed in a major news investigation?

For Shawn Cier, the answer was easy: Apply — and get hired — for yet another teaching job.

The disgraced art teacher — whose story in part compelled a new state law mandating tougher background checks for school workers — again found work this school year in another New Jersey town, an NJ Advance Media investigation found.

Cier was terminated from a Newark charter school after a 2017 NJ Advance Media report revealed how he and other teachers accused of sexual misconduct easily got new jobs. He had previously left three other teaching jobs under a cloud of controversy involving allegations of late-night texting with a student, showing students pornography and making sexually suggestive comments.

But the new law seemed to do little to impede Cier from continuing to work as a teacher. In October 2018, he resurfaced as a substitute teacher in Woodbridge, returning to the classroom even as the state was considering revoking his teaching license.

“I’m surprised,” said Ron Bolandi, the retired superintendent who fired Cier from Hightstown High School in 2009. “What is enough information to say somebody shouldn’t be around kids?”

Cier still has a valid teaching certificate (its been under review since 2017) and can work for any district that wants to hire him, though it may be unlikely a district would knowingly take on a teacher with his past. How he managed to find work again, despite his history and a law designed to weed out troubled teachers, remains unclear.

He was hired by Insight Workforce Solutions, a substitute teaching agency that serves more than 40 school districts across the state, and was employed from October 12, 2018, to December 5, 2018, according to the company.

In a statement provided to NJ Advance Media, Insight said it complied with all mandatory New Jersey Department of Education processes during Cier’s hiring. The law relies on honesty from applicants and the willingness of former employers to disclose accusations or investigations of wrongdoing. It’s also possible that mandatory forms were not completed accurately or not completed at all.

The company did not respond to questions about whether Cier was forthcoming with his history or how many districts Cier worked in as a substitute. It would also not say why his brief tenure ended.

Cier, who did not respond to a request for comment through his attorney, has previously dismissed scrutiny of his past behavior as “a witch hunt.” His return to teaching likely would have remained hidden from the public if not for a recent Reddit post by someone claiming to be a concerned student.

Any problems with the new background check law will be fixed, said Assemblyman Jay Webber, R-Morris, who sponsored the law.

“If there remains loopholes to close, I will do everything in my power to close them as quickly as possible,” Webber said.

If the state Department of Education learns of any wrongdoing, it will absolutely look into what happened, spokesman Mike Yaple said.

Cier’s troubled past was first exposed in the 2017 NJ Advance Media report on teacher misconduct and the weak system for references and background checks that allowed teachers under investigation to get new jobs, a phenomenon called “passing the trash.”

His return to the classroom is the latest twist in a troubled and controversial professional history that dates to his first teaching job more than a decade ago. He has not been convicted of a crime, though he was once arrested after teenage students accused him of showing them pornography on his cell phone.

Though Cier was never employed directly by Woodbridge Township School District, he worked as a substitute teacher on “a handful of occasions,” Superintendent Robert Zega said.

“As soon as the board’s administration learned of Mr. Cier’s background, we brought it to Insight’s attention and asked that he be immediately removed from any placement in Woodbridge Township,” Zega said.

The district no longer contracts with Insight for its substitute teachers, Zega said, though he would not say how school officials learned of Cier’s past. He did not explain why the contract was ended.

The Reddit complaint, posted in April, said students performed an internet search for Cier’s name last year when he was a substitute art teacher at Colonia High School in Woodbridge.

“Watch out if you have kids or are a student,” the user posted.

The individual responsible for the Reddit post declined to be interviewed.

Cier’s story, along with those of other teachers easily finding new teaching jobs after accusations of sexual assault or misconduct, prompted lawmakers to enact the new law. It went into effect on June 1, 2018, and calls for more rigorous background checks for all school workers, including contracted employees who would have regular contact with children.

The law requires schools and contracted agencies such as Insight to ask teachers’ previous employers if they were under investigation for sexual misconduct at the time they resigned or were terminated. Districts are required to share complaints against former teachers unless the cases were proven false or unsubstantiated.

The goal, supporters said, was to address situations exactly like Cier’s by empowering school officials to speak up about problematic former teachers even if they were never convicted of a crime.

In 2007, Cier’s contract was not renewed at Bridgewater-Raritan High School after allegations he exchanged text messages with a student at all hours of the day, according to three former school officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel matters.

Two years later, he was arrested and fired from Hightstown High School after students accused him of makings sexual comments and showing them pornography on his cell phone, according to media reports. The charges were later dropped and expunged, according to Cier, who has maintained his innocence.

Cier then worked in Keansburg for several years only to resign after he was suspended because students found pornography on his work computer, according to district and police records. He faced no criminal charges because the woman appeared to be older than 18, and he said he didn’t even know the files were on his computer.

A case to strip Cier’s license is still pending before an administrative law judge, according to the state Department of Education.

Through it all, Cier keeps trying to teach.

In 2016, he was hired by Marion P. Thomas Charter School in Newark, making $66,000 a year until the NJ Advance Media report uncovered his past

He was terminated the day it was published.

NJ Advance Media staff writers Erin Petenko and Alex Napoliello contributed to this report

Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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