A New Jersey grand jury on Wednesday dismissed charges against a high school principal who had been accused of endangering students in a racial scare that has rocked the liberal, diverse towns of South Orange and Maplewood.
The principal, Frank Sanchez, 50, remains in limbo. The district did not renew his contract in May after the allegations against him emerged. He is on paid administrative leave, which ends this month. He plans to appeal the school board's decision and seek reappointment.
“It was a difficult time in my life,” Sanchez said Thursday. “Being an educator has been my role for a long time, and not being able to do that for a few months was very hard. There were some dark days.”
Dr. Kevin F. Gilbert, the school district's acting superintendent, called the grand jury's decision “welcome news for the many families and students who have been eagerly awaiting Frank Sanchez's return to Columbia High School.”
The case has divided the district, which has long faced achievement gaps between white and black students despite years of civil rights lawsuits and redress programs.
The student who accused Mr. Sanchez is no longer at the school, but she lives in a town where pro-Sanchez signs and parent rallies in his support have been a fixture since his arrest in March.
Sanchez said he empathizes with the student and what she went through. “She, like me, is a victim of adults who brought this attention to themselves,” he said. “Adults in the town were doing this.”
The student did not respond to a request for comment. The local group representing her, Black Parents Workshop, said in a statement that despite the grand jury's decision, “we believe he abused his power and violated the trust of this student,” and suggested it may seek civil damages against Sanchez.
The incident occurred in the lobby of Columbia High School in Maplewood last March, when Sanchez put himself in front of a student who was about to confront a classmate. The exchange, which lasted less than a minute and included physical contact, was incompletely captured on a hallway security camera.
The girl, who is black, filed an affirmative action complaint against Sanchez, who is white and Latino, and a school board member with whom Sanchez had a previous conflict shared the complaint and the preliminary findings of the investigation with local police, which led to Sanchez's arrest.
Some parents, students, and teachers organized in support of him, speaking at School Committee meetings, raising more than $70,000 for his legal fees, and sending more than 1,000 postcards to the prosecutor's office, asking that the case be dropped. Some described the charges against him as a vendetta by a small group opposed to his hiring and policies.
Walter Fields, who founded the Black Parents Workshop and now lives in Maryland, said the support for Sanchez is indicative of deeper problems in the district.
“This is not a community that has a history of supporting black children,” Fields said, “so we're able to raise tens of thousands of dollars to defend adults who have been charged with threatening students.”
“Putting up a sign in your yard in support of the adults who allegedly harassed your students does not demonstrate sufficient care for the students you are traumatizing. Has anyone raised money for students? No.”
Mia Charlene White, a parent who has led support for Sanchez since the grand jury's decision, said the stress of the past few months has been unbearable.
“I have watched Frank and his family suffer this unfair, ridiculous and baseless witch hunt,” said White, who is half black and half Korean. “People are misinterpreting our support for Frank as if we don't understand the challenges that are currently facing our public schools, especially the challenges of protecting black students,” she lamented.
Sanchez narrated school security video of the confrontation during Wednesday's grand jury hearing, explaining that the student had been making threats against his classmates for days. He concluded, “I think the jury understood that as a principal, you have to make split-second decisions like this while balancing the safety of your students, and that this is not something that should be dealt with in criminal court.”
While he said he was relieved to be acquitted of the charge of endangering a minor, he still faces a misdemeanor assault charge, which is a disturbance of peace charge and is outside the jurisdiction of a grand jury. The prosecutor's office said in a statement that the case “will be heard at a future date.”
Since his arrest, Sanchez has not been allowed to have any contact with teachers or administrators at the school.
He also faces a possible civil lawsuit from lawyers for the Black Parents Workshop, Fields said. “We've never considered a grand jury as the end game,” Fields said.