Palm Beach County teacher on administrative leave following series of arrests

WEST PALM BEACH — For the second time in a year, West Palm Beach police have asked the courts to temporarily ban a Palm Beach County middle-school teacher from possessing weapons — this time, after he walked into traffic with a 10-inch knife at a pro-Palestinian rally downtown.

Arrest reports from three incidents spanning the last week detail bizarre and erratic behavior from Hazawin Gridley Wright, a 43-year-old English teacher at Christa McAuliffe Middle School in suburban Boynton Beach. A school district spokesperson said Tuesday that Wright has been placed on administrative leave in the wake of his arrests.

The first came on Nov. 19, when police say Wright walked into traffic during the pro-Palestinian rally and ignored officers' commands to stop. They chased him, then tackled him, and found a curved Arabian Scimitar knife under his shirt. He was tackled again by patrons at O'Shea's Pub five days later after he tried to hit a security guard with a retractable baton.

Wright told police the mob 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.

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Wright was released from the Palm Beach County Jail after both arrests on the condition that he not possess weapons — a condition another judge ordered after his third arrest two days later for allegedly sending death threats to a woman who 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."

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

Recent arrests are not Palm Beach County teacher's first run-in with law enforcement

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

His estranged wife told police last November that Wright had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and 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 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.”

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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 visiting her home with his old key.

Police charged him in April with contempt of court and violating the restraining order. A jury acquitted him of the charges on July 11, ending his two-and-a-half-month stint in jail. Following his release, the restraining order was extended to Aug. 24. School began at Christa McAuliffe Middle on Aug. 10.

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After an employee is arrested, they have 48 hours to report an arrest or serious traffic 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. No such process exists for restraining orders.

Wright was back in the classroom until his arrest on Nov. 19.

The Palm Beach Gardens resident currently faces two misdemeanor and three felony charges. A judge granted another temporary risk protection order requiring that Wright surrender all firearms following the Nov. 19 arrest.

Wright, who was appointed a public defender, remains in custody. As a practice, the county Public Defender's Office does not comment on open cases.

He is scheduled to appear in court for a final hearing about the risk protection order on Dec. 4 before Chief Judge Glenn Kelley. Risk-protection proceedings take place in civil court, and it was not immediately clear if Wright will have an attorney to represent him.

Wright moved to Palm Beach County in 2017 and began teaching English at Odyssey Middle School, but a dearth of students caused the Boynton Beach middle school to close soon afterward. According to his personnel records, Wright began teaching at Christa McAuliffe Middle during the 2018-19 school year.

Hannah Phillips and Katherine Kokal are journalists at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach them at hphillips@pbpost.comand kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism and subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm police asked for Florida teacher's removal after arrests