Mom turns child over to ACS, only to see him stabbed the very next day

Matthew Lysiak, Meredith Kolodner and Jonathan Lemire New York Daily News 01/05/2011 13:50

Cassandra Rivera (right) is overwhelmed by news that her son, Negro Rivera (left), was in critical condition at hospital after being stabbed at PS 12 in Bronx.

A Bronx mom went to court and asked that her 16-year-old son be placed in foster care. Less than 24 hours later, she received a jolting phone call urging her to race to a hospital because the boy was near death after getting stabbed in the neck outside his Bronx school.

"When I heard the news I couldn't breath," said Cassandra Rivera, who stood vigil at Jacobi Medical Center, where her son was in critical condition. "He's only 16. He's my baby."

Her son, Negro Rivera, was jumped while walking to Public School 12/Lewis and Clark School at 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday, police and relatives said.

He staggered into the Tratman Ave. school before collapsing on the stairs and screaming, witnesses said. A pair of bloody scissors, the handle wrapped in gauze, were found just steps away.

"They stabbed him in the jugular!" cried his grandmother Barbara Rivera.

"Why didn't anyone step in?" she asked. "Why didn't anyone help?"