Was Pennbrook Middle School warned of threat before Stanley cup attack in cafeteria?

The motive behind an unprovoked lunchtime attack on a North Penn seventh-grader who was beaten with a steel Stanley brand mug is still unknown more than two weeks after the cafeteria incident that has sparked new school safety measures.

As of Friday, neither district officials or Upper Gwynedd police have released a motive for the April 17 attack at Pennbrook Middle School that left a student with serious head injuries.

Superintendent Todd Bauer updated the community on what security and safety efforts the district has made since the attack, and future plans to prevent another incident at a Safe Schools Committee meeting April 30. The police investigation into the assault also remains ongoing.

But district officials have not addressed reports from parents and students that school faculty were warned beforehand an attack was imminent or that the accused student had a “hit list” containing other students’ names.

In an email Friday North Penn spokeswoman Christine Liberaski said the district discussed the details that could be released at the April 30 meeting.

Upper Gwynedd Police Chief David Duffy did not immediately respond to an email Friday asking about those reports.

Multiple parents and students who attended a school board meeting the day after the assault said that they alerted Pennbrook staff about concerns involving the accused student. Several parents said their children’s names appear on a “hit list” the accused student had.

One parent said she called the school on Tuesday and Wednesday before the assault to alert them that her daughter had been threatened by the student, according to media reports.

Another parent said her daughter and others went to school counselors twice the morning of the attack and reported rumors of an impending attack at lunchtime.

The district has not acknowledged it was warned ahead of the attack or the existence of a “hit list.”

At the Tuesday committee meeting Bauer said neither the school or district receive threat tips through its Safe-To-Say anonymous reporting system.Bauer has also called reports false that the accused student had been expelled from another district for violent behavior or transferred to Pennbrook from a different North Penn school.

Discipline proceedings involving the accused student had not occurred as of April 30, and the information about the outcome would not be released, Bauer said, citing state and federal student privacy laws. Those laws limit personal information that can be released about students.

The student accused in the attack has been charged as a juvenile with aggravated and simple assault and reckless endangering.

The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said it would not release information about the suspect or case because the matter is proceeding in juvenile court.

Reporter Jo Ciavaglia can be reached at Jciavaglia@gannett.com