Lockyer's Middle School pupil 'threatened boy with knife'
A mother whose 11-year-old son was allegedly threatened with a penknife by another pupil says she is not happy with how the school handled it.
The incident happened on Wednesday at Lockyer's Middle School in Corfe Mullen in Dorset. Police are investigating.
Natasha Marchese said her son was targeted by another boy, also 11, but the school did not contact her about it and downplayed the incident.
Dorset Police said it would interview the alleged offender on Friday.
The county council said the headteacher had "at all times followed the advice of police and county council officers".
It said teachers confiscated the knife and contacted police. One boy has been excluded while an investigation is carried out.
Made 999 call
But Ms Marchese told the BBC her son Devantae was threatened in the morning but she was not informed about it until the afternoon.
She said: "The school didn't phone me. If I had been notified I would've been straight up to school and picked my son up.
"You can imagine an 11-year-old put in that situation, someone's going to stab you, but not ant any given time did anyone ask how Devantae was.
"I feel guilty because I send my son to school, knowing [he] should be safe. So knowing that I couldn't get to him and I wasn't told, I was very angry.
"I don't know what went wrong but it was just not dealt with correctly."
She said the school had contacted police but not explained the seriousness of the incident and therefore officers only attended after she made a 999 call the next day.
Ms Marchese said it appeared the school tried to "sweep it under the carpet".
She added: "Is there a tolerance to knives? It's not apparent in this school that they are taking it seriously."
Dorset County Council said in a statement: "Following information that a blade had been brought into Lockyer's Middle School, the school took immediate and appropriate action to safeguard the welfare of children and staff by contacting the police, confiscating the blade and excluding a pupil.
"Following advice from the police, the pupil has been excluded pending further police enquiries. The head teacher has at all times followed the advice of police and county council officers."