Community Education
Peninsula School District reeling from loss of beloved para-educator in KP shooting
A Peninsula School District official confirmed Wednesday that the Key Peninsula woman found dead yesterday in her home was a beloved, longtime district employee. Jennifer Lantz, 48, who went by Jen, was a para-educator who worked with special education students.
Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies responded around 1:27 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 27, to the 7400 block of 185th Avenue NW after a caller reported finding his wife, adult son and dog dead from gunshot wounds, The News Tribune newspaper of Tacoma reported.
The husband said their son struggled with mental health issues and addiction. His parents had allowed him to stay the night, a sheriff’s department spokeswoman told the TNT.
Jennifer Lantz
All in for her students
Lantz joined Peninsula School District in 2011 and served in multiple schools during her career, CFO Ashley Murphy told Gig Harbor Now. Most recently, she worked in the district’s Community Transitions Program, which teaches life skills to students ages 18 to 22 with special needs.
Following a student’s graduation, the CTP program provides a bridge to independent living and employment according to each person’s abilities.
Murphy said Lantz was all in for her students.
“Her focus has always been for our special education students,” Murphy said. “She was well loved by both students and staff alike. She was very ingrained in her community and her school community, and she had a passion for students and our special-needs community.”
Staff support a priority
The district has activated its crisis response team to help staff and students cope with Lantz’s death. Her fellow CTP employees received the news as they arrived at work Wednesday, Murphy said. The district sent a letter to all staff around 9 a.m. Wednesday confirming her death.
Superintendent Krestin Bahr and other top administrators, along with counselors, were at the CTP building to support staff. The district pulled in subs so employees could take the day off if they needed to. Counselors were also present at Vaughn Elementary, where Lantz worked for many years, and which serves many KP families who knew her.
“Ultimately, we just want to ensure that we can support staff where they are in that moment when dealing with news of this caliber,” Murphy said. “Although she had not recently worked at Vaughn Elementary, a lot of the staff do know her as a local community member.”
Students receiving support
The district is providing support to CTP students tailored to their needs, Murphy said.
“We basically have wraparound supports going right now,” she said. “For the students, we need to be able to communicate it to them in a way that they can understand, that, you know, that Jen is gone and she’s not going to be coming back. … Our students in this program have various levels of ability of being able to understand it. And so what that support looks like varies based upon the students.”
The district also sent notices to CTP families with resources for support.
Because Lantz worked in different schools and at different age levels, some students in the special education program knew her for much of their lives, Murphy said. “She got to follow these kids’ journeys, and watch them, you know, become who they are.”