BY WALTER ELLIOTT
SOUTH ORANGE / MAPLEWOOD – Suspended Columbia High School Principal Frank Sanchez can breathe a little easier, thanks to a State Superior Court-Newark grand jury’s June 12 decision.
The grand jury handed down a no bill of indictment that Wednesday on the charge of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child facing Sanchez. The charge was lodged by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office March 8 in the wake of their winter 2023-24 investigation of a March 9, 2023 incident in a CHS hallway.
A “no bill” means that there was not enough evidence to warrant a criminal trial. The jury had reviewed hallway video surveillance recordings and Sanchez’s own testimony before them among the ECPO-submitted evidence. Sanchez’s attorney, John J. McMahon, of West Orange, thanked ECPO June 13 for “permitting Frank to testify before the grand jury in order to provide them the context necessary for their evaluation.”
Sanchez had surrendered himself at ECPO’s Newark office March 11 after he had learned that Stephens had signed an arrest warrant for both the felony endangerment charge and the simple assault-persons misdemeanor charge March 8.
Stephens, in the ECPO’s press announcement that Thursday said that the simple assault charge was and is being treated separately. That charge was not in the grand jury’s scope.
“The grand jury’s decision is welcome news to the many families and students who’ve been looking forward to welcoming Frank Sanchez back to Columbia High School and the SOMSD community,” said Acting SOMSD Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kevin Gilbert June 13.
Gilbert, without elaboration, put Sanchez on paid administrative leave Jan. 2 and had named Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum Ann Bodner as acting super. The SOMSD Board of Education, on April 2, appointed Ricardo Pedro as Interim CHS Principal.
The no bill is the latest turn of a chain of events that happened between Sanchez and a CHS sophomore March 9, 2023. At issue is whether Sanchez was separating the African or African American girl in a hallway fight or if he had assaulted her during the separation and/or restraint.
Sanchez had reported the incident to the N.J. Department of Education and the Department of Community Affairs’ Division of Child Protection and Permanency later that day. The matter rested until Board Member Courtney Winkfield said that an in-district investigation draft report, conducted by a hired outside lawyer, came to the panel’s attention at their December 2023 meeting.
Winkfield, in a March 12, 2024 open letter, said that the School Board Attorney that December recommended that they do not take the draft report under consideration. The outside investigator, said the attorney, “had failed to follow protocol and submit to his supervisor for review and sign-off. The findings had irregularities and had not been properly vetted.”
Winkfield, who declined board re-election last November, said that DCP&P “found no substantive cause for the complaint and refused to investigate.” She said that two of her BOE colleagues that December meeting urged that Sanchez be recommended for termination and, failing to get that, said they would “take this matter into their own hands.”
Additionally, Winkfield said that then-board member Elissa Malespina had presented her copy of the drafted report to the Maplewood Police Department, “who, in turn, provided it to the ECPO.” Some board members, said Winkfield, had wanted to fire Sanchez May 11, 2023 – but his contract was later renewed instead.
Malespina, whose term ended on or by Jan. 1, 2024, has not commented on Winkfield’s accusation.
The student and her parents, shortly after March 9, 2023, had filed an affirmative action complaint with the New Jersey Law and Justice Department’s Office of Civil Rights. According to the April 11, 2024 “New York Times” article, the student said that she was “grabbed” and slammed against a wall.”
The sophomore is being represented by Robert Tarver III, Esq., of Toms River, and the SOMA Black Parents Workshop. BPW founder and spokesman Walter Fields said that he was not surprised that “Friends of Frank” had raised $50,000 for his defense fund and that ECPO received 1,000 postcards urging the office to drop the endangerment charge.
“While some in the community have tried to paint Mr. Sanchez as the victim,” said Fields June 13, “the real victim is a young woman and the dignity of any Black SOMSD student who dares to come forward and protest their mistreatment.”
All parties who have taken sides in this now-16-month matter can agree that the no bill of indictment is a turn of events and not an end.
Sanchez still faces the simple assault charge. it is not known whether he will be reinstated as CHS principal.
The school board, in a separate move June 4, hired Jason Bing as its new schools superintendent, effective June 20. Dr. Gilbert returns to his previous assistant super post.
