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13-Year-Old Faces Attempted Murder Charge for Stabbing Classmate

STOCKTON (CBS13) — A 14-year-old Stockton girl is recovering after a classmate stabbed her on a school playground. The classmate, a 13-year-old boy, is under arrest and facing an attempted murder charge.

The violent attack was carried out at Stockton's Rio Calaveras Elementary School, a K-8 school.

This all played out just before 1:30 p.m. at Rio Calaveras Elementary School in Stockton. Police say the weapon used was a fixed-blade knife that the suspect and another classmate snuck onto campus.

Theresa Patron is a mother of two children at Rio Calaveras Elementary.

"Just worried, scared, wanting to cry," Patron said. "I didn't know how severe it was."

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Patron received a call on her cell phone from the Stockton Unified School District with a recorded message alerting her about the incident. Besides the shock, she's satisfied with how the school handled notifying parents.

"You know we got notified right away," Patron said. "They said it happened at 1:20 p.m. We were notified at 1:45 p.m."

Other families picking their children up from school said they would like to know more.

"I wonder what happened, what caused all that," Parent Phan Kol said. "Why'd that kid bring the knife to school?"

"They do need to check them coming through the gate," grandparent James Scott said. "At that young of an age."

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Neither the Stockton Unified School District nor the Stockton Police Department has released details about what led up to the stabbing.

The district issued a statement reading in part "we take this incident seriously. Our district Crisis Response Team will be on campus to respond to the emotional needs of our students and staff."

The school district recently changed campus security policies at Rio Calaveras Elementary, closing the campus to parents unless they sign in and have previously submitted fingerprints.

"But you know today was a student so it just makes us worried," Patron said.

Two security guards were on the campus at the time of the stabbing. The school does not have an on-site police school resource officer assigned to the campus.

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