WIND GAP, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania appeals court says a special education teacher shouldn’t have been fired for hanging an “I abuse animals” sign around the neck of an autistic, mentally challenged 14-year-old who hit a goat during a petting zoo field trip.
The Commonwealth Court’s recent ruling upholds an arbitrator’s decision to convert Bruce Millheim’s firing from the Bethlehem-area Colonial Intermediate Unit to a 53-day unpaid suspension.
Arbitrator Rochelle Kaplan reversed Millheim’s 2011 firing despite finding fault with the sign and other discipline measures, including calling twisting arms and pushing heads.
In her 2012 ruling ,she said the intermediate unit owed him 14 months of back wages. She said he must follow an improvement plan.
The intermediate unit’s solicitor says school districts, not arbitrators, should make personnel decisions.
- Posted February 12, 2015
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
Court: Rehire teacher who put sign on boy
headlines Macomb
- New leadership team takes helm at State Bar
- Four weeks before Election Day, mail ballot returns are up 30% over same point in 2022
- Belleville woman arraigned in connection with alleged arson, felonious assault
- Warren man pleads No Contest to Felonious Assault and dog stabbing
- Woman sentenced for mortgage fraud, filing a false $374,000 tax refund return
headlines National
- Melissa Hart, the chair of the ABA Legal Ed council, dies
- Judge suspended after indictment over alleged perjury
- Bill Withers’ music publisher files copyright suit over Olivia Dean’s ‘I’ve Seen It’
- Judge reinstates US attorney in Washington fired by Trump
- Interim law dean of University of Florida named to permanent role
- Clio acquires Learned Hand, an AI company for courts, judges




