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SMITHFIELD -- The Johnston County school board voted 5-1 Tuesday to dismiss popular high school science teacher Jeff Ferguson, seven months after he was suspended for holding a classroom experiment in which some students drank milk until they vomited.
Board member Larry Strickland dissented in the vote to end Ferguson's contract when it expires this month. Board member Kay Carroll was absent.
Ferguson had taught chemistry and physics at Smithfield-Selma Senior High School for three years.
School board Chairman Fred Bartholomew declined to comment on the specifics of the decision but thanked school board members for "the eloquence with which you have debated the problem today."
The board had met in closed session before the public vote.
"It was a tough decision. All dismissals are tough," Bartholomew said. "It was the recommendation of the principal to the superintendent, and the superintendent to the board of education. ... That's what we had to do."
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