Phoenix school district apologizes to 1 woman it accused in Maryvale box cutter incident

PHOENIX – The Phoenix Union High School District (PXU) apologized Tuesday to one of the women it accused of trying to sneak a box cutter into Maryvale High School earlier this year.

On Aug. 27, the district identified Arizona state Rep. Lydia Hernandez and her daughter, Cassandra Hernandez, as the people involved in the Aug. 25 incident. The women both are members of the Cartwright School District Governing Board.

Cassandra Hernandez issued a statement on Aug. 29 saying she was at work the day of the incident and had timecards and video footage to prove it.

Three months later, PXU acknowledged that it doesn’t know the identity of the young woman who was with Lydia Hernandez when the box cutter was flagged by a metal detector at the Maryvale High School entrance.

“PXU is unable to verify the identity of the accompanying individual, and we would like to apologize to Ms. Cassandra Hernandez for including her name in the original statement. We are asking the community to help us identify the person accompanying Ms. Lydia Hernandez onto campus that morning,” the district said in an updated statement about the incident.

State lawmaker barred from PXU campuses after Maryvale incident

PXU also announced it issued a formal trespass letter to Lydia Hernandez, meaning police will be called if she tries to enter any district campus without prior written approval.

The district alleged that the lawmaker was trying to test Maryvale High School’s weapons detection system after a 16-year-old student was fatally stabbed there a week earlier.

However, Lydia Hernandez said at the time she wasn’t trying to test the system and wasn’t carrying a box cutter. She said she went to the west Phoenix school after being contacted by constituents over safety concerns, and a metal object was detected in a bag belonging to a woman in a group she met there.

The district provided video and photo evidence that the object was box cutter on Tuesday.

“The lone remaining piece of Phoenix Union’s investigation into this matter is the identity of the young person accompanying Ms. Hernandez that morning. This individual was in possession of the box cutter, and we request the communities help identifying this person,” PXU said in its updated statement.

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