NJ School Board Taking Action Against Teacher

School board members have voted to certify tenure charges against a New Jersey teacher who was videotaped telling a special-needs student he was a “tard.”

The process could lead to Steven Roth losing his job at the school that serves special-needs students, where he has taught for nine years.

Student Julio Artuz used his cellphone to record the encounter with the teacher. Roth appears to call the 15-year-old a “tard” and the teacher responded sarcastically to the student’s pleas not to be called “special.”

The student’s parents urged him to record the instructor after the boy told them that the teacher had bullied him. The boy’s mother, Joyce Artuz, told The Courier-Post of Cherry Hill her son has transferred to another school after receiving threats from other students at Gloucester County’s Bankbridge Regional School.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)