Barnegat Schools Aide On Leave After Bus Incident: Superintendent

BARNEGAT, NJ — A Barnegat Township school bus aide is on administrative leave after videos showing her behaving strangely circulated on social media, the superintendent said Thursday.

The videos, posted in a private Facebook group but shared with Patch, show the woman sitting in a seat, her mask barely covering her mouth and saying to students, "You don't know how to react to me," and in another, sitting on the floor of the bus.

A student's request that she do "a Fortnite dance" was answered with, "So, I haven't really been up on Fortnite since a year and a half ago, so I don't know, boo, I don't know."

The incident happened Tuesday afternoon on a bus with seventh and eighth graders from Russell O. Brackman Middle School, Superintendent Brian Latwis said.

Latwis said the aide, who was not assigned to the bus, was walking to the district's busyard for an afternoon shift and the driver offered to take her there, since they were colleagues. He said the incident was captured by surveillance video on the bus in addition to videos the students took, and "appears to show questionable and inappropriate behavior by this individual."

"We assure you that the entire incident is under review and that the appropriate disciplinary action will be taken once complete," Latwis said. Some details will not be released because of personnel policies and state law.

Barnegat Police Chief Keith Germain said a parent called at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday to report the incident, saying there was "an unknown adult who appeared to be 'high' riding her child’s school bus.

An officer met with a supervisor at the Barnegat School District transportation garage, who told police the woman was an aide and explained she had been picked up by that school bus, but was not assigned as an aide on that bus, Germain said. When the officer spoke to the aide, he did not smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage or see obvious signs of impairment.

"Based on the officer's interaction with the aide and the fact that the aide was not operating the bus, the officer had no legal basis to detain the aide for the purpose of conducting sobriety tests," Germain said.

In a letter to the district' parents, Latwis said the district takes the safety concern seriously, which is why it has equipped the buses with a state-of-the-art GPS system that monitors the buses' speeds and locations, along with cameras in the buses.

"The safety and wellbeing of our students and staff is not only our responsibility, it's our priority," he said. "To those parents that have directly reached out to the district to report and share concerns, thank you. We understand and share your concern about this situation and are working to address it swiftly and appropriately."

This article has been updated with information from Barnegat Police Chief Keith Germain and Schools Superintendent Brian Latwis.

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