School police were warned about teacher's guns years before arrest with loaded gun on campus

School police didn’t know about the loaded gun in Robert Krasnicki's waistband when they asked the Royal Palm Beach High School teacher to move his motorcycle on the morning of Jan. 19.

But they quickly learned the educator of seven years was hiding a 9 mm handgun with one bullet in the chamber as he taught math to high school students that morning.

When asked about his motorcycle blocking the school’s gate, Krasnicki responded with bizarre claims that his ex-girlfriend had cut the brake lines on his car and that she was attempting to spy on him through his phone.

Before school police took Krasnicki to a hospital for a mental-health evaluation, he told them he was carrying the loaded gun and was arrested.

It was Krasnicki’s first documented run-in with school police, but it wasn't their first warning that things in his life had taken a frightening turn.

Other law enforcement agencies had alerted them about Krasnicki nearly four years earlier and again two months before his arrest about incidents involving guns, according to documents from those agencies.

But school documents obtained by The Palm Beach Post through a public records request indicate that school police did very little to act on those concerns and assess whether Krasnicki was a threat on campus.

That department said it did not open any investigation into Krasnicki until his arrest in January.

Yet a judge in September 2019 had barred him from seeing his wife and kids and ordered that his weapons be seized. He had told his principal that his wife feared he’d kill her and their children.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, “nervous” that he was a teacher in a class full of kids, alerted school police about Krasnicki’s wife’s efforts to get a restraining order, an internal PBSO email shows. A sergeant said they’d be attending a hearing to “see his attitude.”

Then, just two months before his January arrest, Krasnicki’s interactions with an ex-girlfriend so concerned the sheriff’s behavioral services division that a detective took the unusual step of warning the school district’s top human resources official in person.

West Palm Beach police also alerted the school police’s threat assessment officer about texts and photos Krasnicki had sent her including one showing him pointing a gun at the camera and proclaiming “death of a lot of things for a Sunday.”

Superintendent Mike Burke, former School Police Chief Frank Kitzerow, current School Police Chief Sarah Mooney and other top district officials have declined multiple requests for comment. Krasnicki also did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The day in January that Krasnicki said he brought a gun to his classroom, no one was hurt. But it’s not known whether it was the first time he had done so.

What is clear is that school district officials allowed Krasnicki to continue teaching while evidence of his personal struggles hid in plain sight.

From his arrest: Royal Palm Beach High teacher charged with bringing gun, knife to campus

Royal Palm Beach principal was told Krasnicki's wife feared he would 'murder' her and her children during 2019 divorce

Krasnicki was 35 when he started working at the school district as a math teacher at Royal Palm Beach High in 2016. He had an unremarkable three years at the school before problems began in 2019, according to his personnel records.

In June that year, his wife of seven years, Emily, filed for divorce.

She called their marriage irrevocably broken and filed for shared custody of their two young children, court documents show.

Things came to a head in September 2019 when he texted her a photo holding a gun to his head, according to court documents.

The text read in part, “take away my kids and the last photo you see of me will be similar to this one but on top of the bridge. use this against me in court, same result. try 2 have me baker acted over this, i'll paint these condo walls red in a heartbeat. i truly do hate you.”

On Sept. 17, Emily filed for a restraining order against him. She told the court she was “in immediate fear of him using the gun to kill both her and the children, and then potentially himself.”

That day, a judge ordered him to stay away from his wife and kids until a hearing could be held to decide whether it should be permanent.

Despite his wife’s fear of gun violence, Krasnicki was not required by school board policy to report the restraining order to his supervisor.

But he did.

Five days after Emily filed for the restraining order, Krasnicki wrote a letter to Royal Palm Beach High Principal Jesús Armas, asking for a 30-day unpaid leave from his position. He told Armas that the divorce process was “devastating” to his physical and mental health and his day-to-day life.

He told Armas that Emily had not given him “any valid reason or explanation” for wanting a divorce.

But then he said, “She fears I intend to murder her, my children, and then kill myself, which is absolutely absurd.”

Krasnicki’s letter to Armas tipped off the school district that a judge thought he was dangerous to his family. But there’s no evidence Armas or school police acted. Armas did not answer multiple requests for comment.

School police had received another warning.

From January: Royal Palm Beach High teacher arrested on campus had gun complaints months earlier

A Palm Beach County sheriff’s sergeant, apparently concerned about Krasnicki’s behavior, reported his concerns to school police, a sheriff’s office email shows. He also told colleagues he would make sure a deputy attended the hearing about extending the injunction “just to see his attitude.”

“His being a teacher in a class full of kids makes me nervous,” the sergeant wrote to two colleagues on Sept. 23, 2019.

It’s unclear how the sheriff’s office learned of Krasnicki’s hearing or of his past behavior. The agency declined to elaborate.

After a Sept. 26 hearing in which both sides could present evidence, a judge extended the restraining order that stopped Krasnicki from seeing his wife and children for one year.

She also required Krasnicki to turn over any firearms he owned. Police seized a Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver and 20 bullets.

But while his guns were seized and Krasnicki was banned from contacting his family, there's no indication the school district received formal notification of the restraining order.

After an employee is arrested, they have 48 hours to report an arrest or serious traffic incident (such as reckless driving) to their supervisor. School district policy then calls for supervisors to assess whether an employee is fit to stay in the classroom or have contact with students.

But no such process exists for restraining orders.

School district officials said they can learn about restraining orders through partnerships with local police agencies, but they declined to answer questions about how that works.

More from April: Teacher brought loaded gun, knife into Royal Palm High School. Here's what he learned in court.

PBSO detective met with school HR chief in person about Krasnicki two months before his arrest

After Krasnicki took a month-long sick leave, he went back to teaching at Royal Palm Beach High.

His supervisors rated him “effective” in his annual reviews in 2020 and 2021, and public documents suggest his personal life had calmed, with no reports of arrests or incidents involving police.

In May 2022, Krasnicki’s girlfriend, Elizabeth Hauptman, broke up with him. She called police to her apartment because she was packing his things and wanted police nearby in case trouble arose when he came back to her house. Police records show he didn’t interfere.

Trouble began again Nov. 6, 2022, when Hauptman called West Palm Beach police to say she was scared.

Police reports show Krasnicki texted photos to her of his guns, including one in which he pointed a gun at the camera and said, “All black today. Death of a lot of things for a Sunday. Goodbye Rob 7.0 and hello Rob 8.0.” 

Police didn’t find anything threatening in the messages, according to their report.

West Palm Beach police then asked Riviera Beach police to do a welfare check on Krasnicki at his home. Riviera Beach officers didn’t find him there, but they contacted Krasnicki on the phone. He said he didn’t threaten Hauptman.

West Palm Beach police notified school police threat management officer Michele Lockhart, records show, although no reports about it were in Krasnicki’s district personnel file.

The following day, the sheriff's behavioral services division asked school police to evaluate whether Krasnicki should be involuntarily committed to psychiatric care under the Baker Act.

In PBSO's behavioral services division, mental health counselors, social workers and deputies work together on high-risk cases, specifically those involving people who could be dangerous to themselves or others.

More than a week after the division asked for Krasnicki to be evaluated, school police said they did so and told PBSO that he did “not meet the requirements of a Baker Act or further action by police,” according to a report from the sheriff’s office.

School police have not provided any records that show proof of this evaluation.

Two days later, though, a detective with the sheriff’s office went even further.

Records show Matthew Wood met with the school district’s then-head of human resources, Vicki Evans-Pare, to review Krasnicki’s case. He showed her the photos Krasnicki had sent to his ex-girlfriend, including the one in which he pointed his gun at the camera.

Officials in the human resources department are responsible for assessing whether school district employees should be disciplined. However, school police are responsible for determining whether a person is a threat on campus.

Detectives in the sheriff’s behavioral services division don’t usually contact employers when an employee has a restraining order against them, unless that person has made a threat to the business or a fellow employee, sheriff’s office spokesperson Teri Barbera said.

But Wood met personally with Evans-Pare because the division treats notification to employers differently for people who work with children, Barbera said, especially when weapons are involved.

“If there was a threat to a business, we would have a responsibility to contact them,” she said. “In the schools, there’s a huge threat when there’s a loaded gun on campus.”

Evans-Pare, who left the district in April, recalled in an interview that district officials reviewed Krasnicki’s actions after the meeting with Wood. But she said they determined his messages to his ex-girlfriend were not threatening and were protected by the First Amendment, so they could not be used as a basis for discipline.

Later, though, she said, district officials decided to refer him for a fitness-for-duty evaluation, which is performed by a private company.

He was assessed and approved to return to work, she recalled.

“We sent him to EAP (the district’s private employee assistance program) for a fitness-for-duty (assessment), and they cleared him,” she said.

She said she didn’t recall the precise sequence of events but said that after his arrest, she created a memo of all actions the school district took regarding his case and sent it to at least two other top district administrators, including Mooney, the chief of school police.

In a response to a records request, the district said the memo doesn't exist.

The district denied a request from The Post to speak with Burke regarding the actions by the district leading up to Krasnicki’s arrest. Instead, it released a statement:

“Although School District policy is to not comment on specific personnel-related issues such as this due to state statute over medical privacy, we have a system of evaluations in place for employees in order to protect students.

“The safety of our students and staff is our top priority. We follow all applicable employment laws to determine which applicants are allowed to become and remain employees.”

Krasnicki ejected from pre-trial program that could have resulted in dropped charges

Since his arrest, Krasnicki’s struggles have continued. He resigned from the school district two weeks after his arrest.

This spring, he was evicted from his Riviera Beach apartment after not paying rent for more than a month, court records show.

Prosecutors agreed in April to drop Krasnicki’s charges if he completed a pretrial intervention program.

The program required him to check in with his pretrial intervention officer regularly, complete a firearms safety course and stay out of jail. It prohibited him from carrying or buying firearms, and also from using drugs or alcohol in excess.

In August, prosecutors reactivated the case against him, citing his rejection from the pretrial intervention program. He has pleaded not guilty.

The records don’t detail how he violated the terms of the program, and a State Attorney's Office spokesman declined to discuss the case.

Krasnicki never made a threat toward Royal Palm High School or his students, according to police and school records. But his interactions with Hauptman, and perhaps his history, played into PBSO’s decision to contact the school district, Barbera said.

School police didn’t discover the loaded weapon by investigating or monitoring him.

Krasnicki told them.

What would have happened if he hadn’t?

If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence or needs help seeking a restraining order

Palm Beach County Victim Services has a 24-hour hotline reachable at (561) 833-7273 for information, options and support for those impacted by any type of domestic violence.

Restraining orders, called injunctions for protection, can be issued to protect you from domestic violence, repeat violence, dating violence, sexual violence and stalking. The orders can stop an abuser from threatening you and set guardrails so they cannot visit your home, your workplace or your children's school. Restraining orders can also force an abuser to surrender their firearms.

A person is not arrested when they are served the restraining order, but they face criminal penalties if they violate it.

Victim Services can help those seeking protection fill out the paperwork to file for a restraining order, can accompany you to court hearings and can refer you to mental health and housing services, such as emergency shelters for victims of domestic violence.

Katherine Kokal is an education reporter and Andrew Marra is an investigative reporter at The Palm Beach Post.

You can reach Kokal at kkokal@pbpost.com and Marra at amarra@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism and subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County school police warned about teacher's guns before arrest