Bethel Stabbing Victim’s Family Speaks Out
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The mother of the Bethel University student who was stabbed on campus earlier this week is speaking out for the first time. Michelle Swift said her son is recovering, but she still has a lot of unanswered questions, including if the school is looking into what happened. Swift told 7 Eyewitness News that her son, Jonathon, was finally out of the ICU, and was in good spirits. But one thing she said their family is not happy about, is how the school responded to the situation early Monday morning. Jonathon, who is 20 and a sophomore at Bethel, should be taking his final exams this week, but instead, he is lying in a hospital bed. “We were expecting to come up here Friday and get the rest of his things and clean out the dorm room and take him home after he got finished with his exams, but unfortunately we had to come early,” Swift said. That is because police said Swift was stabbed by freshman football player Elliot Childers on campus early Monday morning. He was stabbed once in the neck, and once in the abdomen, puncturing his liver. Swift said she believes Childers was trying to kill her son. “When I went into the emergency room and saw my son laying there, that was the first thought in my mind when I saw him,” Swift said. “Then when I heard that interview that Bethel gave and I knew how my son feels about Bethel, it hurts.” Swift said she has not heard from the school or police, but said Jonathon’s coaches have stopped by the hospital to visit him. All she wants is a phone call from the school, asking how her son is doing. The only call she has received was from financial aid. “Making sure that he has it taken care of by Friday or he couldn’t register or be able to come back to the school for the next semester,” she said. According to Swift, she does not know what is next once Jonathon recovers, or if he will go back to Bethel, a school he loves. “My main concern is my son’s education and well being and I entrusted that in Bethel, and they failed me.” The university told 7 Eyewitness News that Childers is no longer enrolled as a student.
