Student expelled from school after assault

A 14-year-old Blaine High School student was expelled from school after a May 15 assault at school and a subsequent police investigation that uncovered a series of threats made to “shoot up the school.”

The student ignored a request from a school administrator on May 15, starting an altercation that led to the student punching a campus supervision employee twice. The school district called Blaine police and the student was detained.

After the incident, Blaine police discovered that the student had made a series of threats online and in person to “shoot up the school” over a period of several weeks leading up to the incident.

In an investigation, Blaine police determined that the threats may be credible, though the student did not possess a weapon. When asked if there were weapons at the student’s residence, Blaine Police Department sergeant Michael Munden said, “He could have had access to a weapon but we were able to determine that he did not.”

Blaine police filed charges of fourth-degree assault and felony harassment against the student.

Munden said on May 28 that he was not sure whether the student was still in juvenile detention.

“We took a lot of steps to mitigate for safety the best we could,” he said. “The parents are aware and making sure that things don’t escalate.”

The student is no longer attending Blaine High School, said district superintendent Ron Spanjer.

“There’s no timeline for when or how a return-to-school process would begin,” he said. “I want to reinforce that we act expediently on issues of this nature and take them very seriously.”

The Blaine school district issued a notice about the incident on May 16 on its website and through its app. At that time, the student was in police custody.