A New Jersey school district is cooperating with local police on their investigation into a parent who got into a heated confrontation with students on Monday.
A widely circulated video shows the parent approaching a student in a classroom at Paulsboro High School and demanding that the teen apologize to his daughter.
“I didn’t do nothing to her,” the student claimed.
“You heard what the f**k I said,” the father responded while face-to-face with the teen. “Apologize to my daughter. Now!”
In the video, the father appears to argue with another teen who is defending his classmate. Throughout the dispute, the student repeatedly says that he did nothing wrong.
Another adult tried to de-escalate the situation, but the father continued to call out to the student: “I’m just proving a point,” he said.
“If I have to come up here again, I’m going to slap fire out the both of y’all,” the parent added while being escorted out of the room.
“Do it, we’re right here,” one of the students clapped back.
The father walked back up to them, and a brief standoff ensued between him and a student. It appears that they made physical contact during the confrontation.
“You scary as sh**,” the man continued before finally walking off.
The father captured in the video was identified by police as 38-year-old Aaron Thomas, WPVI reported. He was taken into custody and charged with disorderly conduct, trespassing, simple assault, and terroristic threats.
The Paulsboro Public School District issued a statement to the community saying that safety is their top priority and an investigation is ongoing.
“Safety and security of our staff and students is paramount,” the district said, per the news station. “Unfortunate situations such as these gives us an opportunity to reflect and analyze current practices to further strengthen the district’s safety and security procedures to ensure that our schools are a safe place for all students and staff.”
Parents had mixed reactions to the video. Some believed the man protected his child, while others said he should have scheduled a meeting with school officials and the other students.
“As a father, I can understand exactly what he’s saying, what he’s doing,” Ed Rosas told the outlet. “But also, as a father of a child that’s in the schools, to have a stranger come in to do what he did is also wrong.”
