follow up to this story is that the bullying did NOT take place IN SCHOOL, but involved adults and older teens in the neighborhood, never-the-less....
Mom Charged With Sending Son To School With Weapons Is Arraigned
She Contends The Boy Was Being Bullied Daily
October 29, 2010|By HILDA MUÑOZ, hmunoz@courant.comHARTFORD An attorney for a 38-year-old woman charged with sending her son to school with weapons said he and his client will talk to school authorities and police about the bullying that prompted the boy to arm himself.
Attorney Sydney T. Schulman, who spoke after Sylvia Mojica’s arraignment Friday at Superior Court, said he will also ask Hartford police if they are following up on complaints Mojica made about the high-school-aged teenagers who had been harassing her 12-year-old son.
“She had reported this problem to the police before,” he said.
Mojica, who is free on $5,000 bail, was arraigned on a single charge of risk of injury to a minor. She is scheduled to return to court Dec. 8.
According to a police incident report, a security officer at the Latino Studies Academy at Burns Elementary School flagged down a police officer the afternoon of Oct. 22 and said Mojica’s son had just been assaulted by three males and ran inside the school to get away from them.
The officer met with the school principal, the boy and Mojica, who told the officer that her son had been getting harassed and threatened daily for at least two weeks. She said she had complained to school faculty several times and tried to contact the principal, the report says.
She then told the officer that before her son left for school Oct. 22, she encouraged him to bring a BB gun and a pocket knife for protection and that she placed the items in his back pack, the report says.
Mojica’s son told the officer that he had been chased by a group of males, one of whom had a knife in his hand, as he left the school that afternoon. He said he ran to the principal’s office, the report states.
A school district spokesman, David Medina, said the boy was not being bullied at school. The incident stemmed from a conflict in the neighborhood the night before between Mojica’s son and adults and teenagers who are too old to be attending the K-8 school.
Mojica said during an interview earlier this week that she took the blame for the weapons so her son would not get arrested. He son was issued a juvenile summons for carrying a dangerous weapon. The case is being handled in juvenile court.
He was also suspended for 10 days and expulsion has been recommended.
Mojica said that the teenagers showed up outside her Laurel Street apartment over the weekend to intimidate her son. Police confirmed that they responded to some “ongoing” incidents at Mojica’s address Friday evening and Saturday.