It happened shortly before 7:00 a.m. Tuesday at Sulky Way and Trotters Lea Lane in Bethel Township, Pa. Police say that's when a man, dressed all in black and a ski mask, approached a 12-year-old girl, pulled out a knife, and tried to take her.
"She turned around and saw the guy, and the guy told her to turn around and if she screamed, made any noise or tried to run he would kill her," said classmate Justin Thomas.
The school bus then pulled up and the man fled.
Thomas was already on the bus when the incident happened. He said the girl then got on the bus because she was too terrified to run back home.
Her father tells Action News the girl told authorities what happened when she got to school, and then came right home. Her father, by the way, is a police officer in another town.
"She was crying and she didn't want to call her mom because she was too scared. Her friend Grace made her call her mom," said Thomas.
The bus driver, Sue Pierce, said she didn't even know what had happened until later in the day.
"I just pulled in and picked up the kids at the entrance and then I came around her and picked up the girl," said Pierce. "I never saw anybody, she never said anything to me, and we went to school. That was it."
Thomas said the most terrifying part for him: The girl told him the attacker said he'd be back.
"You never feel unsafe here," said classmate Sarah Bernstein. "It's scary that something like that could happen anywhere.
Using a K9, police say they were able to track the suspect into Delaware.
The girl is a student at Garnet Valley Middle School. Parents have been notified of the incident by the school.
Anyone with information regarding this incident should contact the Bethel Township Police Department at 610 558-0929.
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