Given the dearth of local news coverage in New Jersey, it is surprising to see multiple articles over the last week about school staff members who have been either accused of or admitted to, at the very least, unprofessional behavior. It’s unclear why this is happening—is it click-bait? is it a distraction from terrifying world events? are labor shortages affecting quality? is school climate really so bad?–but, as a service to readers, here is an annotated list of five recent scandals in New Jersey public schools.

• A elementary school custodian in Upper Deerfield Township School District was charged with “urinating and spitting on school cafeteria cooking utensils, rubbing his genitals on food, spraying bleach on food items and performing sex acts on library furniture, while videoing himself to share online.” This happened in an elementary school serving children grades 3-5.

• In Wall Township’s Central Elementary School, parents are suing the district because a teacher shoved their 10-year-old daughter into a closet, closed the door, and left her there as a punishment for laughing. Other students mocked and bullied her during that time, continuing to call her the “closet girl.” The school never informed the parents of the incident; they found from another parent. Another teacher is accused of ordering a student to delete his video of the girl being shoved into the closet.

• A speech and language pathologist at Faber Elementary School in Dunellen settled a lawsuit against the district after she was retaliated against for reporting that a male teacher was sexually harassing a female teacher.

• The Manchester Board of Education is having a special meeting to consider the contract of Superintendent John Berenato, who an elementary school principal has accused of him of “spearhead(ing) a strategic and coordinated effort to bully, harass and intimidate” her, on the basis that Swift is Black, female, and in her mid-50s.

• A teacher at Jackson Memorial High School, Andrew Fantasia, has been accused of pulling a female student into an empty classroom and making her send him nude photos of herself. During an investigation, the girl called Fantasia, with investigators listening in, and he “acknowledged that sexual contact occurred while (the accuser) was a student and said acts occurred in the classroom,” the affidavit said. “The defendant apologized and advised that they should have waited until (the accuser) was no longer a student.”