Unauthorized Individuals Transported to Fredericksburg City Schools Twice in Past Year
The individual who trespassed at James Monroe High School last year and was arrested in New Jersey was transported to the school via school bus, just as the individual who was arrested last week did.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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On Friday, as reported by the Fredericksburg Police Department and the Advance, a 32-year-old, masked individual boarded a Fredericksburg City Public School bus and was transported to James Monroe High School, where he attempted to enter the school and assaulted a staff member.
The Advance learned this week that this marked the second time that a nonstudent individual was transported by bus to James Monroe High School.
Nearly one year ago, a “missing juvenile from Fairfax County,” as he was described in a news release from the Fredericksburg Police Department, also boarded a city school bus, was transported to James Monroe, and tried to gain entry.
School division staff confirmed this week that the juvenile, later identified as Fasihullah Safar, rode the school bus to the high school.
All Fredericksburg schools were closed to students and staff on Friday, March 21, 2025, after police learned the evening before that the FBI Washington Field Office was attempting to locate Safar.
“[Fredericksburg police] personnel recognized this juvenile as a trespass offender at James Monroe High School earlier this week,” a news release from the police stated. “Information received from the FBI aided in our identification of this offender and elevated our concern for safety in our schools.”
The information about Safar’s boarding the bus, along with other information about him, was not released last year at the request of the FBI, deputy superintendent Matt Eberhardt told the Advance this week.
Lessons Learned?
After the March 2025 incident involving Safar, there was a five-day training on bus safety and security for transportation staff, Eberhardt said.
There have also been regular monthly trainings covering the expectation that bus drivers should only be transporting kids assigned to their routes. The trainings have also covered fire and medical lockdown drills, radio etiquette and emergency codes, how to notify dispatch of incorrect boardings, and how to respond to safety concerns without inciting panic, among other topics.
“We talk about this stuff all the time,” Eberhardt said.
Eberhardt also said this week that division leadership began discussing the idea of having students scan ID cards prior to boarding buses after the March 2025 incident but had not yet implemented the idea.
“Did we do everything we wanted to [last year]? Probably not,” he said. “We did do things. We instituted more training, but we didn’t do the ID cards.”
Eberhardt said the division began moving to implement the ID card system “about a month ago,” purchasing 5,000 ID cards for students and tablets for buses.
The machines to read the ID cards were ordered “last week,” he said.
The division’s new mental health and safety coordinator, Tiffany Acors, begins in the new position on Monday, Eberhardt said. He said the goal is to fully implement the ID card system on buses before the end of the school year, but that it will take some time to develop the procedures.
Eberhardt said that the ID system “might help drivers have the language in place” to respond if someone unauthorized tries board their bus—“You’re not in system, so I can’t let you on.”
Status of Safar, Cromes
Safar was later arrested in Florence Township, New Jersey, after he “intentionally struck a Florence police patrol vehicle multiple times while the officer was responding to a report of an overturned vehicle,” according to a news release from the Burlington County, New Jersey, prosecutor’s office.
In January of this year, Safar pled guilty to charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, and theft of a motor vehicle. He will be sentenced to 18 years in state prison in return for his guilty pleas, according to the prosecutor’s office.
The individual involved in Friday’s incident, Jonathan Cromes, is being held without bond at Rappahannock Regional Jail and is charged with two counts of trespassing, disorderly conduct, misdemeanor assault, and felony wearing of a mask in public.
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