10-Year-Old Student Brings 2 Large Kitchen Knives To Bridgewater Elementary School: Parent

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — Two parents are calling on the Bridgewater-Raritan School District for more transparency after an elementary school student brought two large kitchen knives to school.

Giovanna Quintana of Raritan, who has two students in the John F. Kennedy Primary School,(JFK) shared two recent incidents that have caused her significant concern regarding the safety of her children and the entire JFK student and staff population.

Quintana said a student stabbed one of her children with a pencil.

"When I brought this to the school's attention. I was informed that the student responsible was not a threat and that it was acceptable for my daughter to return to class. This response left me questioning whether adequate steps were taken to ensure her safety," said Quintana at the Tuesday Board of Education meeting.

The second incident happened on Dec. 19 during the school's holiday party. Quintana, who serves as a Class Parent, said she saw two large kitchen knives that she estimates to have a blade of 6 inches or larger in a student's desk. She said it was the same student in the earlier incident.

"When I attempted to address these concerns with the Superintendent I was met with a dismissive and unprofessional response. I felt my concerns were not taken seriously," said Quintana. "The Superintendent then laughed during the call, questioned why they would need to contact me, and provided no clear resolution or reassurance. This dismissive response has left me in the dark about how these situations are handled."

Melissa Fernandez, who has a student in Bradley Gardens Primary School, also spoke at the Tuesday meeting.

"Based on the information I have, an elementary student brought two knives, clearly weapons to the classroom. While I recognize the challenges involved in managing such incidents, I believe the situation was not handled appropriately, as no district-wide message has been sent referencing, lack of communication to our sister school, JFK and parents in the classroom," said Fernandez.

Superintendent Robert Beers said that releasing information on the incident could violate the student's confidentiality.

"Look the difficulty anytime there's a student disciplinary matter is as follows and I’ve explained over the phone to those who have spoken to me... We have a code of conduct that is followed. Also anytime that an incident happens in our schools we work with the student. We provide dispilinary consequences. However, you have to know that information can not be shared with the public," said Beers at the meeting.

"We cannot go out to the public and say look everybody this is what we did to this kid. That would be a violation of student confidentiality and with any issue we take it seriously incredibly seriously," continued Beers.

Both Quintana and Fernandez said after the meeting to Patch that their intention of bringing the incidents to light was not about exposing the student involved, instead it was calling for more transparency and communication with the rest of the school district to make them aware of the incident.

"I am not trying to smear this kid," said Quintana. "I just want to drop my kid off and know they are safe."

"I understand the complexities of school administration and student behavior, but transparency and effective action are critical to maintaining trust between the school and parents," said Fernandez.

When asked for further comment on the situation, Beers told Patch, "We have no comment on the matter as it is a student confidentiality issue."

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