SAN ANTONIO — Lots of kids have first day of school jitters, but for one family at Bush Middle School in North East ISD, the feelings are a lot stronger.
The family said a knife attack last year has caused a lingering fear as their kids return to class. We are leaving out the names to protect the children involved.
Worried mother Karen says she is absolutely scared. Clutching a victim impact letter written to a juvenile judge by her 11-year-old daughter and holding back tears, she quoted the letter, saying "...If the girl were to return to Barbara Bush Middle School, I would be completely petrified of her coming back because I don’t know if she would come back and retaliate or come after me.”
Karen said she is afraid not enough is being done to protect her innocent child, who was threatened in the school cafeteria with a knife to the throat. "It was some type of an Army knife, a military knife of some sort,” Karen said.
Karen said the attack happened in April and could happen again because, by law, the child accused of pulling the weapon is eligible to return to the campus.
"It's very frustrating. It makes me wonder, where is the protection for my child?" Karen said.
Because of privacy laws, NEISD spokesperson Aubrey Chancellor can't speak to the specifics of this case, but she says the district will protect both children.
"There would be a stay away agreement, no contact order. The children would not have any classes together and of course we would be very vigilant about keeping an eye on them," Chancellor said.
Karen says the family’s only tiny sliver of hope is that with a 90-day punishment handed down by a juvenile judge, the odds are high that it will be a while before the girl can return to school, a move the district says they are powerless to stop.
”Unfortunately, it is against the law for a public school to permanently exempt someone from coming back to the school so when their time is done, so to speak, they will be able to come back to the school,” Chancellor said. "We are doing everything in our power to keep all of our students safe. We do have to follow the law, but within the law we are going to make sure that the child feels safe at the school. And if she doesn't for any reason, we want to hear about it."
Chancellor said both families have the option of moving to another school for safety’s sake.
“We do offer school choice, if either party wanted to look into that, they could do that, but we can’t require or force another family to move from their home campus, it’s only if that family wants to do that,” Chancellor said.
Karen said her family moved into their current home to be in the attendance boundary for Bush, and she sees no reason why a child who did nothing wrong should be uprooted.
“My daughter is an honor roll student, a straight A student and they want us to have to make the move? It makes no sense! Have this other child attend another school!” Karen said.