well there's growing outrage in the Perth Amboy Community after a fifth grader was stabbed by another student within blocks of a local Middle School Parent students and teachers are blaming the event on the district's alleged inaction on violence and other bullying echoing similar concerns of families in Ocean County where a 14 year old high schooler recently took her life after being continually bullied many telling Raven Santana it's a pervasive culture that needs to be stopped this was the elephant um to see such a degree of violence the recent stabbing of eleven-year-old smilen Jimenez a fifth grader at Samuel e shell school has left to staff across the district numb and students frustrated Jimenez who was walking home from school was brutally stabbed by another 11 year old with a knife that he had brought to school the news was a specially gut-wrenching for staff and students who knew the boys one educator who works at the school and who wanted to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation says the stabbing is just another example of the lack of supported safety for the more than one thousand students in grades fit through eighth that go there it's the turnover that's really harming us is this the first act of violence in the school unfortunately no about a year ago there was an incident that was just as traumatic for students and staff where several students jumped uh they jumped her in the hallway and kicked her repeatedly in the head which sent her to the hospital and I end up crying again over an even younger child according to another teacher who also did not want to be identified out of fear of retaliation the school has been plagued with violence for years the past five years things has gone worse she says she knew both the victim and the student who stabbed him and described them both as good kids but admits one did not get the support he needed despite there being warning signs she admits it's becoming increasingly hard for staff to keep everyone safe when the ratio in many classes is one teacher to 30 kids and you cannot keep an eye on all of them at the same time it's just impossible everybody's talking about stacked but think about the mother of the other kid has anybody from the school reach reach out to her one student I spoke with who wanted to remain anonymous says the violence is so out of control that students like to record it the video may be disturbing for some viewers show fighting page students say videos of fights were posted on this page from December 2022. after school in school just artifice in general the recent act of violence led to a walkout by students and an evening protest by parents many calling for change specifically from Perth Amboy Board of Education superintendent Dr David Roman you are the most incompetent irresponsible superintendent in the history of first I reached out to the superintendent for an interview request and or statement an attorney responded to the email with a joint statement from the superintendent and Perth Amboy Board of Education where they accused the teachers union of manipulating students and the press and the joint statement the superintendent and Perth Amboy Board of Education went on to say our school Community has been continuously under attack even though the incident did not occur on school grounds or under School supervision unfounded and irresponsible accusations were made to the media and traveled through countless social media accounts our students were mischaracterized mislabeled and manipulated it went on to include a number of actions they plan to take to promote safety by including the implementation of armed school security personnel and metal detectors parents and students I spoke with say they want to see less emails from the superintendent and more action and accountability for NJ Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana