The suspect accused of fatally stabbing a classmate in a Bronx school last year appeared in court Monday.

Abel Cedeno kept silent as he walked past a crowd of reporters following his latest court appearance. He's charged with manslaughter in the stabbing death of 15-year-old Matthew McCree.

Prosecutors say Cedeno stabbed McCree in the chest in front of a class full of horrified students at the Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation in September 2017.

Cedeno and his lawyer maintain that Cedeno endured relentless physical abuse from classroom bullies and that Cedeno was only protecting himself when he stabbed McCree and another student who survived the attack.

McCree's family filed a civil lawsuit last week against Cedeno, the NYPD and city Department of Education for $25 million, claiming wrongful death. The family says the NYPD and DOE failed to install metal detectors in the troubled school.

Cedeno's next court date is set for Oct. 9.

News 12 did not immediately hear back from the NYPD or DOE for comment on the lawsuit.