Rise Academy Founder Rick Baumgartner Awarded Carnegie Medal For Acts During 2011 Hostage Situation

The director of a Lubbock charter school has received a notable award.

Richard Baumgartner, the founder and director of Rise Academy, has been awarded the Carnegie Medal and a grant of $5,000.

Baumgartner received the honor from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission for his efforts to rescue one of his teachers during a hostage crisis at the school in May of 2011.

The medal is given throughout the United States and Canada to civilians who risk their lives while saving or protecting the lives of others.

Baumgartner’s award is one of 35 given to date in 2013.

The award stemmed from the May 9^th, 2011 incident at Rise Academy, when a person came onto the campus and took four women hostage in the office building.

Three of the four women escaped through the office back door and fled to safety as Baumgartner was attempting to secretly enter the office from the back.

The fourth woman, a Rise teacher, was being held at knife-point by the assailant in a locked interior room.

Baumgartner broke open the door and distracted the assailant, 32-year-old George James Bradley, which allowed the teacher to escape. Baumgartner kept Bradley distracted until law enforcement arrived.

Baumgartner took a knife graze to the back during the incident.

Prior to the incident at Rise Academy, Bradley had set his mother on fire at the Stone Hollow apartments at 1510 East Cornell. She died several weeks later.

The Carnegie Hero Fund was established by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie 109 years ago, and so far, $35.2 million has been given to recipients of the award for their acts of heroism in the protection of others.