NJ Education Report

On Tuesday, outside the main doors of Asbury High School, two students were stabbed. The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office announced late yesterday that Jadon Carter, 20, of Asbury Park, has been arrested and charged with two counts of first degree Attempted Murder and fourth degree Unlawful Possession of a Weapon.

Inside sources provided more detail than previously reported.

According to these sources, on Tuesday about 1:00 Asbury Park High School students were playing basketball in the gym when a fight broke out. While a security guard broke up the fight, he or she didn’t contact Asbury Park High School Principal Kathy Baumgartner or Superintendent Sancha Gray. 

High school students were dismissed at 3:33 without any precautions. (The building uses a hybrid schedule: 7th-12 grade students are divided into the Blue Team [last names A-J] and the Bishop Team [last names K-Z], with middle school students and high school students on staggered start and end times and half of each cohort attending each day.) Upon dismissal, Jadon Carter drove up (possibly in a car driven by his mother) and he stabbed the two high school students, ages 17 and 18. Both were hospitalized; one was released and the other remains in the hospital in serious condition.

In response, Superintendent Gray announced to staff that today and Friday will be fully-remote days for 7th-12th graders in order to guard against further violence. She released this statement:

What is deeply troubling is a preliminary report that an individual, who is not affiliated with the school district, may have supplied a weapon to one or more of the students after the end of the school day. While there is no indication that any weapons were brought into the school, we will nevertheless work with our law enforcement partners in an effort to ensure that this matter is fully investigated.

A year ago, a student brought a gun into Asbury Park High School; the incident revealed how students sneak weapons into schools. For that story, see here.