Dad Confronts Teens Inside Classroom: ‘Apologize to My Daughter’

oh got a problem. Mye my a father picking up his daughter. from her high school ends up allegedly. confronting another student barging into. the classroom and cornering the teenager. while he demanded the boy apologized to. his daughter and the charges he now. faces in connection with this viral. incident we sit down with New Jersey. criminal defense attorney Mike corbex. welcome to sidebar presented by law on. crime I'm Jesse. Weber an Ang dad is under arrest and.

trending all over the country after he. was filmed reportedly intimidating a. teenager inside of a New Jersey high. school you might have seen this another. student posted video of this incident to. social media it soon took the entire. internet by storm a lot of people. talking about it so police say the man. identified as 38-year-old Aaron Thomas. barged into a classroom at Paulsboro. High School in New Jersey last week and. he allegedly came to the school around. lunchtime to take his daughter home she. was apparently having problems with the.

fellow student who she claimed was. harassing her now it's unclear how the. father was able to get all the way to. the classroom or why someone was filming. it in the first place but the video. shows someone knocking on the door a few. times before it opens Thomas allegedly. goes inside and points his way toward a. student in a red shirt before. confronting. [Music]. him.

yeah you right. [Music]. there. here apologize to my. door I Ain do yo apologize to my door. you know to it you what.

I apologize to. my now and then another student in the. back corner seems to come to the boy's. defense and Thomas turns his attention. to him for a moment before going back to. the first. boy.

apolog. I I didn't do now it's hard to hear. exactly what everybody is saying but the. teen boy makes a comment about. photos she had pictures of me and my. mom Thomas makes a few more comments to. the other student wearing black and. that's when the male teacher finally. gets involved putting his hand on. Thomas's back trying to to calm him.

[Music]. down I'm just proving the point I'm just. proving the point that here talking. about my daughter but y. some look at you so from there the boy. wearing black and Thomas they continue. to allegedly confront each other as the. teacher tries to get Thomas to. leave. come right here do it you heard what I. said you heard what I said and that's. when Thomas goes back to the corner yet.

again what's the. problem. come with you bro police alleged that. during that scuffle there Thomas grabbed. the boy's arm allegedly also says I. don't care who it is I'll knock anyone. out of this school Thomas finally leaves.

the classroom that's where the video. cuts off just wow to say the least and. according to police the teacher told him. that he wasn't near His Radio to call. for security when Thomas came into the. classroom so he did what he felt he had. to do to deescalate the situation but. the school didn't call police for. another few hours that's according to. police documents so Thomas he ended up. being arrested that same afternoon he. was charged with two counts of third. deegree terroristic threats simple. assault trespassing and disorder conduct.

he was released on bail the next day. told he can't have any contact with the. students involved or their families not. a shocker there let me bring on right. now New Jersey criminal defense attorney. Mike corx to talk about this Mike you. knew we were going to call you about. this story um really upsetting to see. but I will tell you people are divided. about this people in the community. people online should Thomas have been. arrested in charge because some are. saying this is just a father protecting. his daughter what's your take.

I I think it's an interesting issue here. because the law is not really as clear. as one would anticipate on this and it. is open to a lot of interpretation what. I mean by that is I people are going to. listen the law is the law but we still. live as human beings and there's. emotions involved here there was a. father who felt this child was at risk. and quite frankly we're speaking here. with a lot without a lot of background. we don't know if he has any prior. incidences like this if he is a threat.

things of that nature however if most of. these things did not happen at the. school in New Jersey these would be. basically we call them disorderly. conduct offenses or disorderly persons. offenses in New Jersey which is across. the country really it's misdemeanor. wouldn't really be a crime except for. the terroristic threat and the fact that. the interpretation that he made a threat. out of school took it from a simple. assault to a fourth deegree crime just. because of where it happened that that.

that's a really really good point the. location of this where where this went. down and using these kinds of terms of. like knock you out or or fire you know. using the term fire you interpret that. what you mean but I'm glad you mentioned. that the location of where this happened. has a legal significance but a defense. of hey I was just standing up for my. daughter that doesn't really work. legally because he allegedly went on to. these premises interrupted a classroom. went up to two students it's all caught. on tape could a defense be even to the.

prosecutors whether they want to. prosecute this or not or charge this or. even to a potential jury hey I was just. defending my daughter that I don't is. that a. defense it's an interesting question you. ask because if in fact they don't see. this as a criminal offense and just a. disorderly person's offense this matter. would not be tried in front of a jury it. would be tried in front of a judge in. Municipal Court who would be the decider. of fact it' be interesting to me this.

may be one of those instances as a. defense lawyer and it may sound off the. charts where if you feel you have very. strong facts in your favor and your. client can testify well that you may. want this to go in front of a jury for. the same reason just discussed Jesse is. you're gonna have parents on that jury. who say wait a minute is this really a. criminal offense when you're just trying. to make sure your child is safe by. others it wasn't like he he went to a. school where and I understand understand. the law stands against it but there were.

people there there was a teacher there. and the staff had to wait three hours to. decide did somebody really break the law. here well well their argument would be. their argument would be and I've heard. this before is that well I mentioned the. radio situation but look we didn't want. to escalate a situation even further. right if we immediately call police um. it could turn it could have turned what. is a situation that he the teacher was. able to calm him down able to get him. out of the room versus something that.

would have turned a lot worse and I. guess there's something about that that. gave me pause in terms of the. responsibility of the teachers and the. school district also whether that could. be used as a defense for the the the. parent the father Hey listen if I was. such a problem if I was such a danger. why didn't they call police immediately. there is something to be said that if. they did that if it could have escalated. the situation even further what do you. think about that well that's always an. interesting question because there's. never a right or wrong answer because. unfort what if something unfortunate.

happened and immediately he punched one. of the kids or something like that yeah. or within a few minutes then the other. argument would have been wait a minute. why didn't you call the police. immediately you're you're not trained to. deescalate people as a teacher you're te. you're trained to teach students and to. assure safety but obviously this teacher. based on what I saw unless in a video we. could see very quick in a few seconds. but when you go to trial you could watch. that few seconds for hours to try to. evaluate it and cross examine and see.

exactly where it was going but obviously. this teacher didn't feel that kind of. threat and thought he could control it. by just putting his arm around them what. a story about taking matters into your. own hands sometimes not the best. decision and I'm going to tell you what. when it comes to protecting your legal. rights you definitely don't want to do. this on your own you want a valued law. firm in your corner and that is. especially true in personal injury cases. which can be very difficult to sort. through well enter Morgan and Morgan. America's largest injury law firm and. our proud sponsor here on sidebar with a.

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the right to go into the school because. he was going to pick his daughter up he. would have had the right to be in the. school maybe not necessarily a right to. be in the classroom but let's assume he. he did for a minute and he went in and. just and he didn't mention anything. about knocking anybody out or touching. them or or using any violent language if. he just said apologize to my daughter I. heard you've been talking bad about her. apologize to her and and if he just went. that way do you think he would have been. charged I don't know that's an.

interesting question because the fact is. the big question here is how did he get. to the classroom right yeah I mean I. mean I'm one of those old guys it's been. a long time since my kids were into. grammar school or high school and but I. always remember that you just couldn't. walk into a school you have to check in. at the office and they would tell you if. you could go or not and and I think. that's the biggest problem he's going to. have and that's the biggest problem with. him looking at a criminal trespassing. statute because was a school where he.

went and trespassed and by the way it. has also been reported that whatever. Thomas's daughter told him about that. situation that conflict she had with. that other student it may not be. accurate there has been reporting to. suggest that these claims might have. been exaggerated that this idea of. bullying didn't really happen so if. that's true that he was given incorrect. information about what was happening. with his daughter does that help him in. any way well I think I think whether. it's correct or incorrect is sort of.

irrelevant for types of a trial because. what the jury or whoever if it's a judge. finding the fact is gonna have to say. was was it common sense what he did even. if he was under the wrong situation if. he believed that to be true his intent. was to correct something not to hurt. someone uh but that this is gets very. kind like it's so funny because when you. talk about a simple charge like this the. facts get so complicated right because. so open.

interpretation do you think he's going. to take a play it depends it depends on. a lot of things uh it depends on his. exposure uh when I say exposure is he. looking at right now if he has no prior. criminal record he's looking at at a. presumption against incarceration in New. Jersey because a third degree or less. the charg a crime charge um so that. would be something to take into. consideration um a lot of times. difficult to make that decision because.

you always know what you have in your. hands with a plea agreement but under. the law if you're not guilty and you. don't believe you're guilty you should. not take a. plea and walk to talk to me again about. the school if they face any legal. liability here the reason I say that is. because the parents of that 15-year-old. boy that Thomas uh had originally had. focused on let's say that uh they've. called Thomas a coward and they said. we're talking about this they said this. the local media quote we're talking. about two 15-year-old children doing.

children nonsense and a father taking. matters into his own hands and not to. mention how the teacher in the classroom. stood there idly by watching as this all. happened while in a statement the uh. Paulsboro school district superintendent. said in part quote 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 give 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 and they also. indicated that they are cooperating with. the Paulsboro Police Department to. continue to investigate what happened. here they've communicated with all the. involved parties in accordance with. District protocols is the school. district a little concerned right now. well I think they're always concerned. because this becomes a high publicity. type of thing uh I don't know but. looking what we saw with the video is. I mean that this teacher who's a teacher.

he's not a trained security officer but. he did seem like his intent was to keep. this at a as you said earlier to sort of. mellow this out not get everybody to to. to to get more involved so he didn't. confront him because would have. confronting helped someone who was. already you could see was emotionally. upset he tried to Cal him down and. separate him that's what it looked like. in a video and I think that would be a. good argument for him I also wonder if. if he wasn't there what might have.

happened but I'll tell you this much I'm. very curious for this video to be posted. because I'm curious to see the comments. I'm curious to see if people are like he. 100% uh broke the law I mean he is. innocent until proven guilty but the. point is that some might say no what he. did was 100% wrong guilty go you know. should have to be held responsible. versus other people who might say I I. don't think what he did was wrong I. don't think he should have been charged. I'm very curious to see the comments on. this video about it but what I can tell. you is the analysis has been spot on and.

the analysis is something we can uh. definitely hold true to because of Mike. corbano thanks so much for coming on. Mike appreciate I feel like the last. time I had John we talked about another. outrageous New Jersey story I don't. remember what it was but uh I I hope you. don't hold hold me personally that it's. I love New Jersey it's just uh. unfortunately this is you're from New. Jersey mes are outrageous so it's. okay yeah no comment no comment all. right Mike corbex thanks so much. appreciate it thank you for having me on. [Music].

all right everybody that is all we have. for you right now here on sidebar thank. you so much for joining us as always. please subscribe on Apple podcast. Spotify YouTube wherever you get your. podcast I'm Jesse Weber speak to you. next. [Music]. time.