Charter school administrator charged for threatening student with box cutter
By John Cardinale
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ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — An Albuquerque charter school executive director charged with threatening a student made his first appearance in court on Tuesday.
Richard Perea turned himself in to police on Monday and now faces three felony charges.
“What he’s charged with is child abuse, aggravated battery and assault,” KOAT Legal Expert John Day said. “According to the sheriff’s report, this administrator at the school held an open box cutter to a child’s neck.”
According to court documents, that incident happened on April 18 at South Valley Academy.
A 17-year-old student who was suspected of vaping in the bathroom was sent to Perea’s office. In the office, the student was instructed to empty his pockets.
Perea found a box cutter on the student and told him he couldn’t have it at school. He then instructed the student to stand up.
The criminal complaint claims that’s when Perea said, “I’m going to show you what a Chicano man does” and held the box cutter to the student’s neck.
On Tuesday, the state filed a motion for preventative detention to hold Perea until trial.
However, Perea’s attorney, Jason Bowles, disagreed with the motion.
“This is a very unfortunate situation, and I think these motions get filed in cases they shouldn’t be filed,” Bowles said. “Mr. Perea is a 30-year educator, and has no criminal history of any type.”
But how common are threats of any kind on a school campus?
According to the most recent report by the Institute of Education Sciences, they found nearly 7.5% of students in grades 9-12 were threatened or injured with a weapon at school.
That data does not define whether those threats came from a student or a teacher.
Perea’s preventative detention hearing will be held on Thursday.
KOAT reached out to South Valley Academy and asked if Perea’s employment has changed since turning himself in. We didn’t hear back.
The school previously said he was on administrative leave.
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