Kimberly Minkel has raised five boys, but she's never had to deal with anything like this.
She's keeping her son, Isaiah, home from school indefinitely after he said he was assaulted in class and was the target of racial slurs.
"I'm keeping him home because I feel it's unsafe for him to go back to school," she said.
Isaiah says he was in class at Sedro-Woolley's Cascade Middle School when another student stabbed him in the arm six times with a pen -- going through a sweatshirt, breaking the skin and drawing blood.
"As a mother, watching this, it's heartbreaking," says Minkel.
Isaiah is on the autism spectrum. He's quiet, shy and has a hard time expressing himself. He says the situation started when the two boys were joking around, but things grew ugly when he was called the "N-word."
That's when the classmate stabbed him. Later in the day, Isaiah says friends of that classmate joined in the racial taunts.
"I felt uncomfortable every time they said it. I just feel scared. I feel like he's going to threaten me again."
Isaiah was seen by a doctor and his mom plans to press charges.
She says the boy who assaulted her son is still in school and administrators have advised both boys to go through racial sensitivity counseling.
Kimberly doesn't think that goes far enough, given the racial tensions in this country and violence in schools. She's not letting her son return to school until she's convinced he's safe.
"It starts with a pen one day. It goes to a knife the next day. Then someone brings a gun to school and we have a school shooting," says Minkel. "This is an intentional act of racial violence. This is serious."
Sedro-Woolley's superintendent of schools tells KING 5 the district is taking this situation seriously and hopes to work with the family toward a solution.
