San Antonio ISD overturns punishment of fifth grader over 'child-safe' knife

May 24-Seven months after San Antonio Independent School District barred a fifth grade student from attending class on campus for bringing a "child-safe" knife to school in his lunch box, district trustees voted unanimously in May to overturn the discipline.

Julian Cortez, a fifth grade student at Mark Twain Dual Language Academy, spent nearly the entire school year attending a private school after he was assigned 25 days at a disciplinary alternative education program, or DAEP.

The child-safe "Kinderkitchen" knife has a blunt tip and serrated edges, intended for kids to safely learn cooking skills. Designed to look like dogs, with a nose and dog tail on the handle, to "encourage enthusiastic young chefs," the knives are suitable for ages 3 and up, according to the online product listing.

Cortez's attorney filed a lawsuit against SAISD in October claiming the district violated his due process rights and misused its authority by forcing him to withdraw from his home campus. In the lawsuit, the family demanded the reversal of Julian's DAEP placement, the removal of all related disciplinary records from his permanent file, acknowledgement of "the procedural and substantive flaws in this process" and training to ensure district officials act professionally during disciplinary hearings.

In December, a judge granted a temporary injunction so that Julian, now 11, could return to school while the adults handled the legal battle. SAISD appealed the decision to the Fourth Court of Appeals in January, claiming governmental immunity.

Meanwhile, Laura Becerra, Julian's mom, appealed the disciplinary decision through the school district. Eventually, the appeal came before the San Antonio ISD school board. On May 4, the district's board of trustees voted unanimously to reverse the decision, finding it to be "excessive," Becerra said. Her family will likely drop the lawsuit, she said.

Trustees voted only to overturn the DAEP placement but ordered the district superintendent review processes, per Becerra's complaint.

SAISD spokesperson Laura Short said trustees decided to overturn the DAEP placement after deliberating on the evidence provided at a hearing in a closed session meeting. She did not respond to a question about how much the litigation has cost the district.

Back in September, Becerra got a call from her son's school asking her to come pick him up. She worried her fifth grader, who had never been in trouble before, was hurt. Once she arrived at Mark Twain to collect Julian, a San Antonio ISD police officer told her they had confiscated a weapon from her then-10-year-old.

It was the fruit knife Becerra bought her son a few weeks earlier to help him cut his fruit at lunch.

"I mentioned that it was a Montessori utensil that I bought it for him, because I was teaching him how to cook. I didn't know it was prohibited to bring something like that, because it didn't cut skin," she said. "It's more to dangerous to have a pencil than have that, because it can only cut soft fruits."

SAISD attorneys argued in the district's Jan. 23 legal appeal that Julian was given due process, and the district considered mitigating factors, including his intent and disciplinary history, in its decision. While Becerra argued the district unfairly questioned her son without a parent present, district lawyers pushed back saying campus administrators followed the proper procedure.

Since it wasn't a criminal investigation, the boy didn't need to have an advocate present during questioning, the lawyers said.

"Even in 5th grade, students are expected to know that knives of any type are not allowed at school. Furthermore, despite the stated lack of intent to harm, (Julian) admitted to chasing classmates with the knife and 'tagging' them with it," the lawyers wrote in the filing. "This is precisely the kind of behavior a student code of conduct seeks to prevent."

Consequences of discretionary punishment

Becerra said campus administrators told her in September that while it was "a big misunderstanding," her son was still going to be suspended.

The SAISD mother shared an email Mark Twain's principal sent to other families about the incident. She said Principal David Garcia confirmed her son had no intention to hurt others when he brought the knife to school. Texas law requires districts to consider a student's intent and disciplinary history before sending a student to DAEP.

Becerra argued SAISD did not consider these factors in her son's case.

"District protocols were followed, and an investigation determined the child had no intention to harm anyone," Garcia wrote to Mark Twain fifth grade parents on Sept. 10. "The item was identified as a child's Montessori knife, which is designed for educational use. However, bringing such an item on campus is not OK."

That same day, SAISD officials suspended Julian for bringing the knife to campus. Julian's family later got a letter calling them into a hearing with the district, where administrators reviewed the evidence and decided to transfer him to a DAEP.

A DAEP is an alternative school for any student older than 6 who is removed from campus for three or more days for mandatory or discretionary discipline. Often located on a separate campus, these programs are required to teach children the core curriculum but can be less rigorous than regular classroom instruction. This can cause children to fall behind during these placements, according to the nonprofit Texas Appleseed, which focuses on justice issues.

SAISD students can be assigned a discretionary DAEP placement for possessing, showing or using a knife or "any other instrument that could be perceived by another person as a weapon," according to the district's student code of conduct.

A 2011 study of nearly one million Texas public school students found that 97% of classroom removals were discretionary and done in response to student code of conduct violations, according to research from Texas A&M University and the Council of State Governments Justice Center.

In its appeal filings, SAISD attorneys wrote that Texas courts have consistently found that placing a student in an alternative program, like DAEP, is not a removal from instruction.

"Students do not have a protected right to a specific curriculum such as the dual language program (at Mark Twain), or to placement at a particular school; accordingly, an assignment to an alternative education program does not deprive a student of any protected property rights or liberty interests," SAISD attorneys wrote in their appeal.

While fighting the DAEP placement, Becerra found Julian a homeschool program and later began paying for him to attend a private school. Beyond the financial cost and the burden of missing class time, the disciplinary action began to negatively affect the boy's mental health and self-esteem, Becerra said.

The fifth grader struggled with the fact that other students believed he was a bad kid or had done something wrong.

'Never mind'

Under House Bill 6, a school discipline law that went into effect in September, Texas has doubled down on harsher discipline policies in public education.

Authored by Texas Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican from Plano, the law broadened districts' powers to suspend students or issue discretionary DAEP placements for minor offenses or "disruptive" behavior. Calling the law the "Teacher Bill of Rights," he wrote online that HB 6 would give educators the authority to maintain discipline and focus on teaching, rather than disruptions.

Even though the disciplinary ruling was overturned, Becerra said she will not be reenrolling Julian in SAISD after the experience. Instead, she and her husband plan to move to another school system where they feel there will be better educational opportunities for their son.

She now wants her story to reach families who may not have the same legal resources as her family; her father oversaw the lawsuit and provided guidance through the battle with the district.

"It really took all that (multiple meetings and a lawsuit) for a group of people to decide, 'Never mind. We made a mistake,'" Becerra said.

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This story was originally published May 25, 2026 at 11:25 AM.