TODD ERDMAN

(AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)UMATILLA, Fla. – A Central Florida school district will not reinstate a middle school teacher who lost his job last year after making “lewd and offensive” TikTok videos that were seen by his students. The Lake County School Board agreed last month to uphold the termination of Todd Erdman's teaching contract, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Telfer heard two days of testimony and then ruled in November that the school district had just cause to fire Erdman, the newspaper reported. “Those TikTok videos contain lewd and offensive material,” he wrote in his Nov. 6 order. “Those TikTok videos made their way into the public sphere, and were viewed by students and parents in the school district, as well as school district personnel.”Erdman was overseeing the middle school’s in-school suspension program when he was removed from his post in 2019.

An administrative law judge has backed a decision by the Lake County superintendent of schools to fire a teacher who posted what the judge described as “lewd and offensive material” on the TikTok social-media network. The judge ruled that the teacher’s behavior amounted to violations of “immorality” and “misconduct in office” clauses in school rules. Judge Robert Telfer III on Friday issued a 26-page order recommending that the Lake County School Board terminate the employment of Todd Erdman, who was a faculty member at Umatilla Middle School. Lake County Superintendent Diane Kornegay in October 2019 informed Erdman that she planned to recommend termination to the school board after an investigation of numerous TikTok videos that included Erdman making sexually explicit comments, according to Telfer’s ruling. “Further, the TikTok videos … ultimately made their way into the public sphere, and students, parents, and school district personnel viewed and became aware of them,” the judge wrote.

An administrative law judge has backed a decision by the Lake County superintendent of schools to fire a teacher who posted what the judge described as “lewd and offensive material” on the TikTok social-media network. Judge Robert Telfer III on Friday issued a 26-page order recommending that the Lake County School Board terminate the employment of Todd Erdman, who was a faculty member at Umatilla Middle School. “During the summer of 2019, and prior to the start of the school year in August 2019, Mr. Erdman created videos with his smart phone using TikTok. According to the document, Erdman lip synced to audio that was sexual in nature in the TikTok posts. “Further, the TikTok videos … ultimately made their way into the public sphere, and students, parents, and school district personnel viewed and became aware of them,” the judge wrote.