The superintendent of Stapleton Public Schools in Nebraska is facing an assault charge in connection with an alleged incident that appears to have occurred on district property earlier this year, according to local news reports.
Superintendent Brian T. Redinger was charged last Friday on suspicion of misdemeanor third-degree assault, with the complaint against him alleging that he “did threaten (a school patron) in a menacing manner,” according to court documents reviewed by The North Platte Telegraph.
The incident between Redinger and another man occurred during the lunch hour on Jan. 31 at an address matching the Stapleton Public Schools complex in the rural western part of the state. Redinger took over as the district’s superintendent at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year, according to the Telegraph.
The district’s school board said Tuesday that it is aware of the charge and, based on its own investigation, believes Redinger will be exonerated. Its members intend to support him throughout the legal process.
“The Board of Education has determined that Superintendent Redinger acted lawfully and within the scope of his authority on January 31, 2023 when he requested that a disruptive patron leave the school building and sought assistance from law enforcement when the disruptive patron refused to do so,” the board’s president, Franklin Kramer, said in a statement posted on the district’s website.
Redinger’s salary was set at $128,400 for his first year, and he received a $2,400 increase for the 2022-23 school year, according to a contract posted on the district’s website. The contract expires at the end of June.
This isn’t Redinger’s first notable brush with the law while serving as a superintendent, local reports indicated. He was arrested in 2016 on suspicion of “hitting his wife’s head on a car dashboard and driving at her with his vehicle,” the Telegraph reported.
Redinger, who was then superintendent of nearby Shelton Public Schools, pled guilty to reckless driving and third-degree assault and received a sentence of 18 months on probation and five days in jail. Prosecutors dropped felony charges of terroristic threats, strangulation and attempted first-degree assault in the domestic violence incident, which also led Shelton Public Schools to fire Redinger, the Telegraph added.
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