School District Steps Up Security After Alleged Attack On Board Member
ELVERTA (CBS13) — School district administrators in Elverta claim a man is putting them in fear, and now they say it's turned violent after an alleged attack.
"We're very concerned about what he might do next," said Elverta Joint Union Elementary Superintendent Michael Borgaard.
He's increasing security at his campuses all because of an Elverta resident, James Stewart, who CBS13 happened to have interviewed in 2012 in an unrelated story.
Borgaard says it was Stewart who confronted a school board member and beat him at a Rio Linda grocery store last week.
"He was punched in the jaw and his head struck on the concrete," Borgaard said. "He has staples in the back and was fairly seriously injured."
That school board member declined to speak to CBS13 on camera, but sheriff's deputies confirm they took a felony assault report about the incident, but Stewart was no longer on the scene when they arrived.
"To be brutally assaulted like that is just beyond comprehension," the superintendent said.
He says Stewart became angry about four years ago, when school leadership changed. Then he says Stewart became convinced the district had something to do with his marriage to a district employee coming to an end.
"Has some very misguided and misdirected ideas about the role of school leadership," he said.
Deputies say they are following up.
Stewart's father told CBS13 he didn't know where his son was.
"Not for a couple, two or three days," Paul Stewart said.
Borgaard says he's hoping Stewart is arrested, and soon.
"We consider him a dangerous individual," he said.
Stewart has not been charged with a crime, but deputies have him listed as the only suspect in the assault.