A father has pulled his 7th grade son out of school this week after another student at O'Brien middle school threatened to stab him in the face.
According to Joaquin Arevalo, it's a threat made more than once that he says the school and school police are taking too lightly and he's not willing to risk his son's safety.
Friday afternoon a phone message was left at his home by the dean at O'Brien middle school in Stead saying a student had threatened his son Alex.
The family says it all began after Alex and another student got into a fist fight that morning.
Alex says he had been telling the student recently to stop bullying one of his football teammates, when the focus turned on him.
"Right after the fight, we backed off each other and he said f-you and then he said I'm going to shank you in the face."
Both boys were suspended after the fight, but according to the family, the student made the threat again in front of a teacher.
Alex said "The dean of the school called us and told us that the teacher over heard him saying to his friends that he was going to stab me."
Monday morning Arevalo took his son to school knowing that the student who threatened him was suspended until Tuesday.
He says he didn't get the reaction or action he was looking for.
"I went to school with him to talk to the school police and hopefully get some reassurance this was going to be dealt with the right way and what I got was resistance, well maybe he was just blowing off steam, we are all adults we've said dumb things before."
Arevalo says he understands why his son was suspended for a day after getting into a fight.
But what he can't understand is why the student who threatened him would be allowed back on Tuesday.
He says school police told him they wanted to talk to the student when he returned and investigate more before any action could be taken and that's when Arevalo decided to take his son out of school.
"They could be real threats yes. I take them very seriously. State law says that you can't make a threat towards a student or teacher on school grounds. There's gotta be something done."
News Four's Shelby Sheehan went to the Washoe County School police to find out how they deal with threats like the one made towards Alex Barajas.
Lieutenant Dale Richardson told her that by law he cannot comment about specific cases or students but would answer general questions about protocol.
Sheehan asked "Would be safe to say that school police take these types of threats very seriously no matter who says them and in what context?
Richardson said,
"Yes every threat that is reported we will investigate fully until we determine that it is no longer a threat or the person is in custody."
Richardson says when a verbal or written threat is made they look at a number of things to determine how serious it is.
The students discipline record, if they have the ability to carry out a threat and under what circumstances the threat was made.
"If it is serious and we have enough information at the time it's reported to us then the child will be taken into custody and taken to Jan Evans and then we can follow up with our investigation later."
Joaquin Arevalo says he hopes to see the student who threatened to stab his son expelled at the least and his son able to go to school feeling safe.
"I am going to keep him at home for the next week, get his homework, make sure he does not fall behind.
He's a straight A student. We'll wait and see what they do. I don't want my son going to school with another kid who can go to school threatening to stab someone in the face and still be there."
Today the student was in class at O'Brien middle school.
Alex's mother told Sheehan this afternoon she was told by the school dean that as part of the investigation a psychological evaluation was done on the student and it was determined the threat to stab her son was quote "blowing off steam and not a credible threat."
She was also told the investigation was closed and the school could not tell her what if any punishment would be given for the threat.
The family threatened to sue the district today and according to the mother now the investigation has been reopened.
They do plan to keep their son home until the situation can be resolved to their satisfaction.
