Teh One Who Knocks
12-05-2013, 05:55 PM
by ERIC WILKINSON / KING 5 News
MONROE, Wash. -- The 8th grader stayed home from school Tuesday, still shaken by the incident. She spent the day decorating the house, but Christmas has lost a lot of it's sparkle.
"I thought he was gonna hurt me," she said. "I was so scared."
The girl was riding the bus to Hidden River Middle School near Monroe Monday when a 13-year-old boy allegedly pulled out a pocketknife, looked straight at her, and made a chilling threat.
"He licked the blade twice. He turned and said 'I'm going to chop you up into chili and make your friends eat it.' I was scared and I thought he was actually going to do it."
The student says because of the driver's strict policy not to move around on the bus, she sat in nervous silence before getting to school. Once there, she tried to report the incident, but was told to go check in at her first period class. When she returned to the office a few minues later she was able to tell a staff member what happened. But for the next four and a half hours she had no idea what would happen next - if the boy was still armed, still out there.
"When I have break he's normally around where I hang out with my friend and I was scared that if I let it go he would really try to hurt me," she said.
Monroe School District officials said the suspect was removed from class, disarmed and emergency expelled within 10 minutes of the girl's report. The parents were eventually contacted near the end of the school day. School officials claimed they tried to contact the parents sooner, but were unable to. The parents said they never received an earlier call.
Most painful to the parents, however, was that their daughter was left wondering for so long whether that boy might try to make good on his threat.
"There was some serious emotional distress that needed to be addressed a long time before it was," said Casey Bailey, the girl's father. "The lack of support from the school was alarming to me."
The school district said it acted swiftly and appropriately.
MONROE, Wash. -- The 8th grader stayed home from school Tuesday, still shaken by the incident. She spent the day decorating the house, but Christmas has lost a lot of it's sparkle.
"I thought he was gonna hurt me," she said. "I was so scared."
The girl was riding the bus to Hidden River Middle School near Monroe Monday when a 13-year-old boy allegedly pulled out a pocketknife, looked straight at her, and made a chilling threat.
"He licked the blade twice. He turned and said 'I'm going to chop you up into chili and make your friends eat it.' I was scared and I thought he was actually going to do it."
The student says because of the driver's strict policy not to move around on the bus, she sat in nervous silence before getting to school. Once there, she tried to report the incident, but was told to go check in at her first period class. When she returned to the office a few minues later she was able to tell a staff member what happened. But for the next four and a half hours she had no idea what would happen next - if the boy was still armed, still out there.
"When I have break he's normally around where I hang out with my friend and I was scared that if I let it go he would really try to hurt me," she said.
Monroe School District officials said the suspect was removed from class, disarmed and emergency expelled within 10 minutes of the girl's report. The parents were eventually contacted near the end of the school day. School officials claimed they tried to contact the parents sooner, but were unable to. The parents said they never received an earlier call.
Most painful to the parents, however, was that their daughter was left wondering for so long whether that boy might try to make good on his threat.
"There was some serious emotional distress that needed to be addressed a long time before it was," said Casey Bailey, the girl's father. "The lack of support from the school was alarming to me."
The school district said it acted swiftly and appropriately.