SIMI VALLEY : Student, 14, Knifed; Schoolmate Arrested

A Valley View Junior High School student escaped serious injury when four classmates attacked him with an Exacto knife, Simi Valley police said Tuesday.

Police arrested one of the assailants, age 14, on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and released him after referring the case to juvenile authorities, said a report by Lt. Tony Harper.

Harper said the victim, a 14-year-old white youth, was standing in front of the school about 3 p.m. Monday when four Latino schoolmates came up.

Three of the youths held the boy against the wall while the fourth put an Exacto knife to his throat and laughed, Harper reported. They then let him go.

About 20 minutes later, three of the four youths chased the victim and he fell to the ground. The youth who had held the knife to the victim’s throat poked him in the back with it, cutting his clothes and scraping his back, the report said.

School officials reported the assault to police at 9 a.m. Tuesday, and Detective John St. Laurent, who patrols the schools, arrested the suspect, the report said. Police later recovered the knife from the suspect’s house.

Detectives are still investigating the assault, but they do not believe that it was gang-related, the report said.

In February, Valley View student Phillip Hernandez, 14, stabbed classmate Chad Hubbard to death. Hernandez was sentenced to serve four years in a California Youth Authority facility for involuntary manslaughter.