New developments surrounding the mother of a Treasure Coast autistic boy, who was voted out of his kindergarten class by his classmates last spring.
Melissa Barton, mother of six-year old Alex Barton, says she was threatened by an angry parent at school last week.
"She said that when I got to the parking lot she was going to beat my a**," Barton told us.
Melissa Barton, who's six-months pregnant, says when a woman came up to her at Morningside Elementary last Friday in the cafeteria and made that threat she was stunned.
"I was in shock. I really didn't know how to respond to a person of this mentality," Barton says.
Barton was at the school for an honor roll assembly and the woman was clearly angry.
"She said I want to make this real discreet. She told me she had been following me. Obviously I was shocked and upset," Barton said.
Melissa Barton has become widely known in south Florida, after the incident at school involving her six year old son Alex last year.
Alex's teacher, Wendy Portillo, humiliated Alex by having him stand in front of the kindergarten class while the other kids told him what they didn't like about his behavior, and then they voted him out of their classroom.
Portillo later got a one-year suspension. Melissa says that parent who threatened her Friday is a friend of Portillo's, and should've been arrested for her actions.
"I've never been physically threatened like this and being that I'm pregnant I would think you'd have enough sensitivity to leave well enough alone," Barton said.
She says she can't believe the school resource officer who was at Morningside Elementary Friday let the woman leave without arresting her.
"You don't have the right to threaten somebody, you don't have the right to follow somebody or stalk somebody," Barton explained.
Police tell us they handled the incident correctly.
"The officer did do an investigation and there was no merit to it. The witnesses did not hear any threat," said Tom Nichols, Port St. Lucie Police spokesman.
Police say without a witness to verify that there was a threat, the matter comes down to a case of "he said, she said" and it's merely one woman's word against another, and they need more than that to make an arrest.
Barton, though, says she feels so scared she may seek a restraining order against the parent.
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