Boy, 12, accused of knife threat against schoolmate

A Philadelphia elementary school student during lunchtime recess on Tuesday put a knife to the ribs of a 9-year-old classmate after a dispute over a ball and threatened to set him on fire if he told anyone, according to authorities.

The 12-year-old attacker, a sixth grader whose name police did not release, was charged with criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, possession of an instrument of a crime, terroristic threats, and simple assault, authorities said yesterday.

Amy Kappine, mother of alleged victim David Montijo Jr., said that she was outraged that officials at Thomas Creighton School in Crescentville had never called her to tell her about the attack and that it had taken school officials hours to act on her son's complaint. School officials ultimately found the 12-year-old in possession of the knife.

Kappine also complained that her son and his brother, Anthony Day, 10, had not been taken seriously when they reported the incident to a playground aide.

The boys' mother learned of the matter about three hours later, when a friend picked her sons up from school and officials said they needed to talk to Kappine. They did not call her or the boys' other emergency contacts, she said.

District officials acknowledged yesterday that Kappine should have been notified sooner, but said the assistant principal had been diverted by investigating the complaint and dealing with the arrest of the alleged attacker.

"There was a time lag because there was an investigation going on," said Lucy Feria, superintendent of the North Region, which oversees Creighton.

Feria said administrators had learned that the 12-year-old had a knife when two students reported it to a teacher after recess. She said she would investigate the complaint that the playground aide had ignored David and Anthony.

She said the school had had other behavior and safety problems in recent months and had formed a task force with the regional office and parents to deal with them. The regional office is helping the school look into procedures at recess, too, she said.

David, a second grader, and Anthony, a third grader, were in an unrelated assembly on school bullying more than an hour after the alleged attack when school officials approached them and asked them to make a report on the knife incident.

The alleged attacker and another student, 11, who held David down while he was being threatened have been recommended for expulsion, Feria said.

"I just want something to be done about this," Kappine said during an interview at their home yesterday afternoon.

"I should have been the first person they called."

David said that when he found a blue rubber ball in the street and began playing with it shortly after noon, the older boy slapped his hand and took it away and David tried to get it back.

That was when the older boy took out the pocketknife, he said.

"He put it at my ribs and said if you tell, he's going to light me on fire," David said.

Anthony said he had pushed the student with the knife off his brother, and the two of them ran away, Kappine said.

David said he was afraid "they were going to kill me."

David and Anthony approached a nonteaching assistant and told her twice what had happened, but she was busy breaking up a fight between two younger children, the boys said.

"I told her he tried to stab my brother," Anthony said.

"She just was ignoring us," David said.

The boys went back to playing kickball after they were ignored, and the 12-year-old was flashing the knife at other students, the brothers said.

A sixth grader who asked not to be named said he also had reported that the 12-year-old had a knife during recess. The 12-year-old took the knife out just to show him and then put it away, he said.

The 12-year-old went back into school with the knife after recess, Kappine's sons said.

"A teacher could have been stabbed," said David Montijo, 25, David's father.

The student with the knife had been in the school only two months, Feria said.

Kappine did not send her boys to school yesterday and will not allow them to return to Creighton, at 5401 Tabor Ave. She will seek a transfer to another school for safety reasons, she said. Feria said the district likely would grant the request.

She pressed charges through the Northeast Police District, and the 12-year-old student was charged at 4:25 p.m. on Tuesday, police said.

David had a restless night, his father said, and bad dreams.

"He kept waking up and telling me he didn't want to go to school," his father said.

Like all elementary schools, Creighton does not have metal detectors.

"I was mad," Montijo said. "I didn't think something like this would happen to my son in school. They should be able to be safe in school."

Feria said the district would offer David counseling and tutoring.