‘It was traumatizing.’ Family of boy stabbed by another student at Turlock High speaks out
Maribel Covarrubias, a single mother of four children, was at work the morning of Nov. 5 when an official from Turlock High School, where her oldest son is a senior, called to say he’d been stabbed.
“I got hysterical, crying and going crazy and didn’t know what to do,” she said. “So I told my boss ... and she put me down in her office and had a prayer with me and that’s where I calmed down and had my thoughts more straight so I (was) able to drive to the school.”
Covarrubias arrived as her 17-year-old son, whom she asked not be identified by name, was being airlifted to a Modesto hospital.
“I heard the helicopter and I thought the worst,” she said.
She went to the school’s office, where staff gave her some assurance: Her son was conscious and speaking before he was loaded into the helicopter.
The mother and her oldest daughter, Chantel Pulido, went to the hospital together. Doctors were stitching the boy’s wounds and he still had dried blood caked on him.
“It was traumatizing, it was hard to see him like that,” Pulido said. “He was just crying like, I know he was trying to hold it in, he had his eyes closed.”
“He was trying to be brave, I think,” Covarrubias added.
Her son was stabbed 23 times in his upper body, including his face, head, arms and torso. He had to have surgery to repair tendons cut in his hand.
Covarrubias said family members have pulled together to support one another, but they are all traumatized.
She spoke to The Bee, along with her daughter Pulido and son-in-law Alex Mendoza, outside their Turlock home on Friday while her son rested inside and her mother cared for her two youngest children.
The student accused of attacking Covarrubias’ son has been charged with attempted murder. The prosecutor on his case said in court last week that his office has not yet made a decision about whether it will seek to have the minor tried as an adult. The judge said the suspect was being seen by mental health professionals in juvenile hall, where he remains incarcerated.
Reached by phone on Saturday, the suspect’s mother declined to comment.
Disturbing video of the attack circulated among students and on social media.
The suspect is seen advancing on and repeatedly making slashing gestures toward the victim, who is already bloodied and throwing punches, trying to fend off the suspect as he stumbles backward.
At the end of the video, the victim turns and runs as teacher Ryan Tribble calmly approaches the suspect, stopping the assault. The attack occurred on a sports field after first period.
Covarrubias said she has watched only the clips of the video that aired on TV news. She questions why other students chose to record her son’s attack instead of helping him.
Pulido said her brother told her the suspect walked up to him, said “‘Hi,’ like as a friend, and out of nowhere he saw him pull out a knife, and my brother thought in his head, ‘Oh its a prop.’ He wasn’t expecting that from him. And then out of nowhere … he realized he was being stabbed.”
Turlock police have said that they don’t know what motivated the attack and that there’s no evidence to substantiate rumors of bullying by either student.
Pulido said her brother was bullied in elementary school, so he knows how it feels and wouldn’t do it to others.
She said her brother and the suspect are merely acquaintances. They don’t have any classes together this year, she said, and she doesn’t think they’ve had any since freshman year. Both are seniors.
Pulido’s husband, Mendoza, said that whatever the situation, “Speak up. There’s a way to get through stuff like that, not throw your whole life away and almost throw his life away.”
Covarrubias said her son had just started his first job, working at a restaurant, was participating in boxing and was looking forward to graduating in the spring.
Now he has months of physical therapy ahead of him and Covarrubias doesn’t know when or if he will return to the school where he was attacked. She said she is working to get him counseling.
Mendoza said, “I feel in general for the rest of his life … he’s going to be always looking over his shoulder because he’s just going to be traumatized, even just looking in the mirror ... It’s probably going to be hard for him to socialize.”
Covarrubias said medical bills are already coming in and she’s had to pay out of pocket for his physical therapy. She’s been on leave from work to care for her son. To help with medical expenses she set up a fundraiser on Facebook. To donate, visit: https://www.facebook.com/donate/457909205768244
This story was originally published November 15, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
