- November 19, 2024
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A 12-year-old girl is accused of bringing a 12-inch kitchen knife to school in her book bag Tuesday and waving it at a 10-year-old boy at a bus stop, threatening to stab him, according to a Flagler County Sheriff’s Office case report. Each child told deputies that the other had bullied them.
Deputies charged the girl with aggravated assault and improper display of a weapon.
The knife was so large that it startled the girl’s father, who, after being called to the school by a deputy, took a look at it and said, “That’s a sword!” according to the report.
Both children are students at Rymfire Elementary School.
School officials learned of the bus incident when the Transportation Department called, asking for school leaders to meet the bus when it arrived on campus.
They did, and the girl was brought to Rymfire Assistant Principal Timothy King’s office.
By the time a deputy arrived, according to the report, it was clear the girl had been crying.
King and Principal Paula Francis told the deputy they had asked the girl if she brought anything to school that she shouldn’t have, and she said no.
But when they asked to see inside her backpack, she didn’t want to let them look. And when she did open it, the knife was clearly visible, they told the deputy.
The girl told them she didn’t know how the knife got there and said she hadn’t threatened anyone with it.
The boy told deputies that the girl picked on him every day at the bus stop. He’d told his mother, he said, but no one else. He said the girl had pulled out the knife and threatened to stab him with it.
The girl accused the boy of bullying, saying he had picked on her daily at the bus stop but that she hadn't told anyone.
The school, King told the deputy, will open a bullying investigation.
The deputy advised the district to conduct a threat assessment on the girl before allowing her to return to a district school. The knife is in evidence at the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.
