HERMON – A high school student has been expelled for reportedly threatening a girl with a pocketknife earlier this month.

The Hermon school committee voted unanimously on Monday night to expel the Hermon High School student, according to Principal Brian Walsh.

The juvenile violated a school policy that prohibits students from possessing objects that could be used as weapons to harm others, Walsh said Wednesday.

“I think it’s unfortunate that sometimes students make choices where they don’t think through the consequences,” he said, adding that the incident is the first time a weapons violation has occurred at the high school since he became principal three years ago.

Walsh would not provide the boy’s name, age or grade level, citing privacy requirements.

The boy reportedly pulled out a knife on Jan. 4 as he rode home on a SAD 23 bus, then sliced open a water bottle and told a 14-year-old girl, “This could be your head.”

Police took an informational report from the girl’s mother, Eva Cookson of Carmel, but did not charge the juvenile.

School officials interviewed Cookson and her daughter and other students on the bus and subsequently suspended the boy, Walsh said. The school committee, the only body with authority to expel a student, then conducted its own investigation, he said.

Students are not allowed to have weapons, even toy replicas, in their possession at any time while on school property, according to the Hermon school department code of conduct.

Such violations warrant discipline ranging from suspension to expulsion, the code says.

The boy can apply to be reinstated at the high school, but must meet the conditions set by the school committee, Walsh said.