Christa McAuliffe Middle School teacher who was arrested three times in a week quietly fired

An English teacher at Christa McAuliffe Middle School was quietly fired by the school board in December after he was arrested three times in one week. The arrests stemmed from a series of bizarre incidents in November involving a fight at a West Palm Beach bar, bringing an Arabian Scimitar knife to a protest and running into traffic when police tried to arrest him.

Hawazin Wright, who had worked with the district since 2017, was fired by the school board at its Dec. 6 meeting after the school district found his arrests disqualified him from working as a teacher in Florida, according to district human resources chief Tim Kubrick.

Unlike other teachers who face firing by the school board, Wright's name was not listed in the board meeting agenda and there was no public recommendation by Superintendent Mike Burke to fire him.

Instead, Wright was included in an anonymous list of employees who were leaving the district in December for a variety of reasons such as "dissatisfied with pay," "personal reasons," and "return to continue education," along with 13 other categories of explanations. Those explanations typically don't include disqualifications or arrests.

Kubrick, however, said it's "common practice" to list disqualified teachers this way in board materials.

Being arrested and charged with a crime does not mean a teacher is automatically fired, as school board policy only requires the employee to report their arrest to their supervisor.

More from November: Palm Beach County teacher on administrative leave following series of arrests

Police say Wright walked into traffic on Nov. 19 during a pro-Palestinian rally in West Palm Beach in response to the Israel-Hamas war and ignored officers' commands to stop. They chased him, tackled him and then found the curved Arabian Scimitar knife under his shirt. He was arrested and charged with carrying a weapon and resisting arrest.

Trouble arose again five days later when patrons at O'Shea's Pub in downtown West Palm Beach tackled him after he tried to hit a security guard with a retractable baton, according to West Palm Beach police. Wright told police the group accosted him because he is a “gay white Muslim American male who is a Trump supporter," according to his arrest report. Officers charged Wright with aggravated assault and possession of methamphetamine.

His third arrest came two days later, on charges of sending death threats to Jacklyn Edelstein, a woman who he had gone on three dates with who then tried to end their relationship.

That arresting officer described Wright's "nonstop" text messages to the woman in an affidavit to the judge: "(He said) that she should be careful how she talks to him, that she's a dead woman walking, that he wanted to punch a Jew in the face."

Post investigation: School police were warned about teacher's guns years before arrest with loaded gun on campus

If she sent one more of his phone calls to voicemail, Wright told her "she'd be dead by morning," the officer wrote.

Prosecutors ultimately dropped the charges related to the harassing phone calls and threats to kill Edelstein, but not before a judge approved a 12-month risk protection order that prevented Wright from owning firearms.

Prosecutors also declined to pursue the aggravated assault charge stemming from the incident at O'Shea's Pub, although they moved forward with the methamphetamine possession charge. Wright is expected to be arraigned on that charge on Jan. 25.

Wright pleaded not guilty to the charges from the protest, which included resisting arrest and carrying the knife. He's expected in court on Feb. 8 for a hearing on those charges.

Wright had history of restraining orders, but he wasn't required to report them at work

Court records indicate that she is not the first woman to accuse Wright of threatening to kill her.

His estranged wife told police in November that Wright had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and had threatened to kill her and her child. A judge granted a risk protection order, at which point police removed a firearm, several magazines and 51 rounds of ammunition from Wright’s possession.

Wright's estranged wife, Augusta Wright, filed for a restraining order against him in January, citing a slew of death threats throughout their 10-year relationship. She said Wright told her he would “chop up her body and bury it in the ground.”

A judge signed off on a five-month restraining order in February, but his ex-wife said Wright swiftly broke the terms — first by calling her from an unrecognizable phone number and saying, “You know whose voice this is, I’m coming after you," then by entering her home with his old key, which he was supposed to dispose of.

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Police charged him in April with violating the restraining order. A jury acquitted him of the charges on July 11, ending his 2½-month stint in jail. Following his release, the restraining order was extended to Aug. 24.

After a school district employee is arrested, they have 48 hours to report the incident to their supervisor. School district policy then calls for supervisors to assess whether an employee is fit to stay in the classroom or have contact with students. If they decide a teacher cannot stay in class, they are often reassigned to a paid position where they do not have contact with students.

No such process exists for restraining orders.

That meant Wright remained in the classroom from the start of the school year on Aug. 10 until his arrest on Nov. 19.

Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our work: Subscribe today!

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Middle school teacher fired by Palm Beach County Schools after arrests