EASTON, Pa. – A Pennsylvania special education teacher and union representative with a history of humiliating special needs students was fired by his school district, but could return to the classroom after an arbitrator overturned the decision.

Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 appealed a recent arbitrator’s ruling that Colonial Academy life skills teacher Bruce Millheim should have received a suspension instead of termination after he hung a sign from a special education student’s neck that read “I abuse animals,” LehighValleyLive.com reports.

The incident involving the 13-year-old’s punishment took place in October 2011 after a trip to a petting zoo in which the student lured a goat with food then hit it on the nose. Millheim allegedly learned of the incident six days later, and placed the sign around the student’s neck to teach him a lesson.

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“Millheim said he created the sign and placed it around the student’s neck so the student would understand it was wrong to hit animals, according to the arbitrator’s report,” the news site reports.

“He said he was trying to use a technique that uses pictures to communicate with students who are limited verbally. Others testified he was not using the technique properly and he admitted to not having been trained in it.”

The teacher texted a picture of the crying student to a colleague who informed him of the incident at the petting zoo, and that colleague removed the student from Millheim’s classroom. Another teacher changed the sign to read “I love animals” and helped the student write an apology for his behavior, which calmed the student, but Millheim created a second “I abuse animals” sign and forced the child to wear both signs in class.

Millheim was initially suspended with pay during a district investigation that also uncovered evidence that Millheim would use students’ phobias against them, issued “inordinately long time-out periods,” and other questionable techniques, LehighValleyLive.com reports.

“The facts of this case are particularly troublesome because this employee utilized techniques that involved humiliation and terror to address behavioral concerns,” IU-20 attorney John Freund told the news site.

School officials found that Millheim not only disregarded accepted behavioral control techniques for disabled students, he also violated state and federal laws, Freund said.

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The school board fired Millheim, a union representative, in December 2011 for “immorality, cruelty, persistent negligence in the performance of duties, willful neglect of duties” and violating the law.

School officials allege the teacher would call students names like loser, knucklehead, or shabby butt, and was also known for manhandling students who were uncooperative.

“You’ve issued excessive force with students, twisting their arms behind their backs, and pushing their heads, hurting them sometimes to the point of tears,” according to court records cited by LehighValleyLive.com.

District officials also noted that Millheim had previously been reprimanded and place on an improvement plan.

Millheim appealed the termination to an arbitrator, who overturned the decision and issued a 53-day suspension with back pay for missed work. IU-20 officials appealed the arbitrator’s ruling to a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court and are currently awaiting a ruling. The Pennsylvania State Education Association, the statewide teachers union, filed a brief with the court in support of Millheim’s reinstatement.

IU-20 Executive Director Charlene Brennan told LehighValleyLive she’s doing what she can to keep Millheim from returning to the classroom.

“If something is happening then I need to step up and protect children,” Brennan said. “I believed the way to do that was to terminate his employment.”

Freund believes the case highlights what’s wrong with Pennsylvania’s termination process for bad teachers – “commercial arbitrators” who have too much power in determining just cause, according to the news site.

“The root of the problem lies in the arbitration of teacher dismissals,” he said.