NJ Education Report

This past March NJ Left Behind broke news that a student at Asbury Park High School was caught with a gun in his backpack. Now we have some resolution on the status of Asbury Park High School Principal Kathy Baumgartner, who was suspended with pay and, according to sources (who will remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation), was made the fall-gal for this incident.

To recap, last winter several high school staff members happened to look at Snapchat and saw a video of three Asbury Park High School students in a bathroom; one of them took a gun out of a black backpack and showed it to the other two boys. The staff members notified Baumgardner. Security guards later found the backpack with the gun in the gym.

From a follow-up post:

While several people were in Baumgardner’s office, the boy holding the gun in the Snapchat message came in and said, “I want my backpack back.” A source reported that Baumgardner said, “you’re bringing guns into my building?” The boy said he was being recruited for a gang and someone must have put the gun in there. The police were called, as were the parents of all three boys, who gave permission for questioning.

No teachers or other parents were notified and the student with the gun  was escorted out of the building. 

At some point Baumgardner called Superintendent Sancha Gray. She was unable to reach her and sent her a text informing her of the situation. She also filled out an incident report and sent it to Gray. Shortly after, Roberta Beauford, head of HR, went over to the high school and told Baumgardner she was suspended with pay, pending an investigation. 

Eight months later, the case appears to be resolved. See this agenda item from a recent Asbury Park Board of Education meeting:

 “Return from Administrative Leave The Board hereby approves the end of the administrative leave for employee id #05156, effective September 30, 2020, as well as employee id #05156’s return to work effective October 1, 2020.” 

Most likely one of these employees is Baumgrardner, who is once again on the district website as principal of Asbury Park High School. Here is information about how students sneak weapons into Asbury Park Public School District. According to the most recent Asbury Park High’s School Performance Report (which is dated school year 2018-2019) there were no weapons violations reported to the police. This data is self-reported by the district.