N.J. Teacher Loses License After Being Accused of Taping 9-Year-Old Boy's Head to Desk By Sean Neumann

A New Jersey teacher recently gave up his educator’s licenses after he was arrested and accused of taping a 9-year-old student’s head to his own desk as punishment.

The former teacher, Todd Lewis, voluntarily gave up both of his teaching licenses to the New Jersey State Board of Examiners, according to reports this week from local outlets NJ.com, NorthJersey.com, and New Jersey 101.5. 

Lewis, 58, reportedly did so after being arrested last December and accused by the Pompton Lakes Police Department of taping a 9-year-old student’s head to his desk for roughly an hour using masking tape. The former New Jersey teacher had his two elementary school teaching licenses since both 2004 and 2005, according to NorthJersey.com.

At the time, police also arrested Sallyann Scala, who was Lewis’ teacher’s aide, and accused her of allegedly standing by and failing to intervene to stop the teacher’s alleged punishment, according to a Pompton Lakes Police Department news release issued last December.

Lewis was charged with one count of endangering the welfare of a child in the second-degree, according to police. Meanwhile, Scala, 68, was charged with one count of fourth-degree abuse and child neglect.

The two educators worked at Lenox Hill Elementary School at the time, according to Pompton Lakes police. The alleged incident happened in early Oct. 2024.

The then-9-year-old student told police that Lewis “had placed masking tape around the back of [his] neck and secured it to [his] desk for approximately 40-50 minutes while Ms. Scala was present in the classroom and failed to intervene,” Pompton Lakes police alleged.

At the time, police said that if found guilty, Lewis faced 5-to-10 years in state prison for his child endangerment charge, while Scala faced possibly up to 18 months. New Jersey State Prison records show neither are currently in custody.

PEOPLE has reached out to the Pompton Lakes Police Department for more information about whether the charges are still active or have since been dropped.