By admin 
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The mother of a teen who was stabbed to death inside a Maryvale High School classroom plans to sue Phoenix Union High School District, according to court records obtained Friday by Arizona’s Family.
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The notice of claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, claims the district is to blame for the murder of 16-year-old Michael Montoya because the district eliminated school resource officers (SROs), deliberately reprogrammed metal detectors and ignored years of danger.
Montoya was stabbed during his third period Integrated Sciences class on Aug. 19, 2025, around 11 a.m. He died at the hospital.
According to police, the suspect, Chris Aguilar, 16 at the time, smuggled a folding 4-inch pocketknife onto campus. After the stabbing, Aguilar reportedly ran out of the classroom and dropped the knife, but was later detained by a school safety officer.
The biggest allegation in the notice of claim is that two weeks before the stabbing, the district installed a brand-new weapons detection system, which the manufacturer said could detect anything from small folding knives to large fixed‑blade weapons.
But the district intentionally configured them to spot only large weapons like rifles and handguns, ignoring smaller knives like the one used in the death of Montoya, the family alleges.
The notice of claim states the school district got rid of school resource officers in 2020 and, despite a rise in violence, including a student shot in a bathroom at the school formerly known as Cesar Chavez High School in 2021 and an AR-15 brought to Bostrom High School in 2023, officials refused to bring them back.
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Some regional resource officers were brought back in 2023.
The court paperwork claims the district turned down free grant money in March 2025, months before the deadly stabbing, that would have paid for full-time SROs at Betty Fairfax and Carl Hayden high schools.
The claim argues that dozens of teachers in the district knew for years it was just a matter of time before a student was killed on campus with a weapon like a knife.
As for Aguilar, he has been charged as an adult with first-degree murder. He’s pleaded not guilty.
Police said Montoya had stolen a gun from Aguilar during a meetup the previous day, and that’s why Aguilar murdered him. Court documents said Aguilar was heard saying he wanted to kill Montoya before the stabbing and moved seats in class so he could sit next to Montoya.
The mother is seeking $28 million in damages.
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