CHIMACUM — A former Chimacum student was charged with multiple counts of assault after he was arrested for investigation of bringing a knife onto the Chimacum School campus.
The former middle school student was arrested Tuesday and was charged Wednesday with four counts of assault in the second degree, possession of marijuana and unlawfully handling a weapon, according to Michael Haas, the Jefferson County prosecuting attorney.
“Obviously the assault charges are the more serious,” Haas said Thursday. “That’s a Class B felony.”
The youth, who has not been identified because of his age, is being held in the Kitsap Youth Detention Center in Port Orchard on $10,000 bail. He is due back in court in Port Townsend on June 14, according to Haas.
Chimacum Superintendent Rick Thompson said the student had been banned from campus last year for disciplinary reasons and had previously been at a medium-to-maximum-security rehabilitation institution in Snoqualmie.
Thompson said the student was back in the community over Memorial Day weekend, but Tuesday morning, the boy’s father called the school to say he had run away and asked school personnel to keep an eye out for him.
The boy was spotted on campus at about 1 p.m. by Chimacum Middle School Principal David Carthum, who called emergency dispatchers.
Six deputies answered the 9-1-1 call from Chimacum School, said Chief Criminal Investigator Arthur Frank of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Carthum, the boy’s father and two deputies attempted to talk with the boy before he was arrested after brandishing a knife, according to Thompson.
During the altercation, the campus was on lockdown from about 1:15 p.m. to 1:25 p.m.
No one was injured and, according to Thompson, the former student complied with the arrest.
After his arrest, the boy was taken to the Kitsap Youth Detention Center. He was in Port Townsend on Wednesday morning to receive his charges, according to Haas, but is now back at the detention center.
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Cydney McFarland can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 55052, or at cmcfarland@peninsula dailynews.com.