South Jersey father arrested after confronting student in high school classroom

PAULSBORO, New Jersey (WPVI) -- A South Jersey man is facing charges after police say he entered a high school classroom and threatened two students earlier this week.

Police say 38-year-old Aaron Thomas went into a Paulsboro High School classroom Monday and confronted students who were reportedly in a dispute with his daughter.

In a video posted to Instagram, which police are using as part of their investigation, Thomas appears to walk up to a student and demand he apologize to his daughter.

"Apologize to my daughter," Thomas says repeatedly throughout the nearly three-minute video.

About a minute into the video, an adult intervenes and tries to get Thomas to leave, but the situation appears to escalate.

Thomas is then seen making physical contact with another student and begins yelling.

An affidavit says Thomas came to the school to sign out his daughter, who was having problems with another student over photos being shared.

Instead of leaving with his daughter, Thomas tracked down the other student.

Later in the day on Monday, Thomas was arrested and charged with simple assault, terrorist threats, trespassing, and disorderly conduct.

The Paulsboro School District superintendent put out a letter saying the district is working with police.

Charging documents do note it took the school about three hours to call the police.

Police say the high school has a school resource officer, however, that individual was not at the school Monday.

Some parents who watched the video thought Thomas' response was justified, while others thought he should've gone about the situation differently.

"He's between a rock and a hard place," said Ed Rosas from Mantua Township. "As a father, I can understand exactly what he's saying, what he's doing. 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."

"That's wrong," said Annmarie Sabatini from National Park. "The father shouldn't have gotten arrested. He was protecting his daughter."

"He should've gone to the principal's office and got with them and pulled the kid out," said Clarence Davis from Paulsboro.

Read the full statement from the Paulsboro School District superintendent below:

"We are aware there are many concerns regarding the recent incident that occurred at Paulsboro Junior/Senior High School on Monday, March 11, 2024, and the subsequent videos of the incident that have been circulating on social media platforms.

In an effort to remain committed to clearly communicating with parents and the community about safety issues, this letter is being written as a follow-up to this situation.

The Paulsboro Public School District in cooperation with the Paulsboro Police Department continues to investigate the incident and have communicated with all involved parties in accordance with district protocols. Due to the ongoing nature of this investigation, additional details about the situation cannot be released to the public.

Safety and security of our staff and students is paramount. 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.

As always, If you have any questions or concerns you think we can help address, please feel free to contact the superintendent's office at 856-423-5515, extension 1218."