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High School Stabbing Leaves One Teenager Dead, Another Critically Wounded Bronx School Stabbing Leaves One Student Dead and Another Wounded
(about 4 hours later)
One teenage student was killed and another was critically wounded when they were stabbed inside their Bronx high school on Wednesday morning, the police said. A 15-year-old was fatally stabbed and a 16-year-old was critically wounded in their Bronx high school on Wednesday morning in what police say was apparently the culmination of weeks of conflict.
An 18-year-old student was being questioned by the police, who said that the teenager gave a knife to a counselor and went to a school office after the episode. The killing, the first inside a city school building in more than two decades, according to the mayor, set off a lockdown that left hundreds of children cowering inside their classrooms, the older ones frantically texting parents for help. As word of the killing spread, parents desperate to see their children descended on the school building, which houses two schools — the elementary school P.S. 67 and the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation, serving students in grades 6 to 12.
The stabbings occurred at about 10:45 a.m., inside the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation in the West Farms neighborhood, south of the Bronx Zoo. The two who were stabbed were students in the Wildlife Conservation school. The police said that another student at the school was taken into custody and was being questioned by investigators.
In an interview, a dean at school said the fatal confrontation stemmed from “bullying,” and at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, the Police Department’s chief of detectives, Robert K. Boyce, said the confrontation appeared to be the culmination of a dispute that had been going on for about two weeks. The chief of detectives, Robert K. Boyce, said the student in custody, who is 18, had handed a switchblade to a school counselor after the stabbing before heading to an administrator’s office, where he waited for the police to arrive.
The boy who died, a 15-year-old, was stabbed in the chest, according to the police. He was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The other victim, also a 16-year-old boy, was stabbed in the arm and in the torso, and remains hospitalized “in grave condition,” a police official said. In an interview, Kevin Sampson, a dean at school, said the fatal confrontation stemmed from “bullying,” and at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon Chief Boyce said it appeared the three students had been locked in a running dispute over the first weeks of the school year, and that it blew up inside a fifth-floor history classroom around 10:45 a.m. in front of about 20 other students.
Shortly after the attack, the building — which also houses an elementary school, P.S. 67 — went on lockdown, and the police rushed to the scene. Many police commanders were in the Bronx already for a ceremony naming a street in honor of a police sergeant who was slain while on duty there in November. The boy who died was stabbed in the chest, according to the police. He was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The other victim was stabbed in the arm and torso, and was in critical but stable condition. The victims’ names have not been released.
Outside the school on Wednesday afternoon, frightened and angry parents gathered, demanding their children be released from inside the school building at 2040 Mohegan Avenue. The stabbings — and the presence of a switchblade in the school — stirred complaints from some parents that the school did not have metal detectors and prompted questions from reporters to the mayor and police officials about whether the school should have had them. Eighty-eight of the city’s roughly 1,300 school buildings have metal detectors that are used either full time or part time.
As a scuffle broke out between anxious parents seeking news about their children, Kevin Sampson, the school’s dean, stood with his head in his hands. He had performed CPR on the student who died, he said. Among students and faculty, though, the talk was of the lives changed.
“Two of my students got stabbed and one of them died,” Mr. Sampson said. “It was about what it’s always about, bullying,” he said. Shortly after they were released from the lockdown on Wednesday afternoon, Asia Johnson and Yanique Heatley, both 18, stood outside the high school at 2040 Mohegan Avenue in the West Farms neighborhood.
The dispute among the three students devolved into violence during a history class on the fifth floor on Wednesday, in front of about 20 other students, Chief Boyce said The two were friends with all three of the students involved, they said. Ms. Heatley described the 18-year-old as “different from the other guys.”
Afterward, the 18-year-old walked out of the classroom, Chief Boyce said, and was confronted by a guidance counselor to whom he turned over a weapon — a switchblade knife with a 3-inch blade. “He likes Nicki Minaj, stuff from H & M. He likes Kylie Jenner,” she said.
“He then walked into the assistant principal’s office and sat there until police came,” Chief Boyce said. “This hurts,” Ms. Johnson said. “No one should experience bullying but there’s a way to handle it,”
The 18-year-old has not been charged. “It’s really sad,” Ms. Heatley added. “Two boys might lose their lives and our friend will never see the outside again.”
At the news conference, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “It’s unacceptable to ever lose a child to violence inside a school building. All of us are feeling this tragedy very personally." Mr. Sampson, the school’s dean, stood, visibly shaken, outside on Mohegan Avenue. He had performed CPR on the boy who died, he said. “Two of my students got stabbed and one of them died,” Mr. Sampson said. “It was about what it’s always about — bullying.”
The 18-year-old, whose name has not been released by the police, has not been charged.
At a news conference with police and school officials, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the death had shaken him and many others in the community and the city government.
“It’s unacceptable to ever lose a child to violence inside a school building,” the mayor said. “All of us are feeling this tragedy very personally.”
Later, he visited the school, emerging a short time after along with a group of school staff members, many of them in tears.
In the first half of this year, the Police Department recorded 11 public safety episodes at the school, which has 545 students in grades 6 through 12, according to department data. There were two arrests, both for assault.In the first half of this year, the Police Department recorded 11 public safety episodes at the school, which has 545 students in grades 6 through 12, according to department data. There were two arrests, both for assault.
About 75 of the city’s roughly 1,800 schools have some type of scanner, according to police. The Wildlife Conservation school does not. “This is a school that it was determined it does not need a metal detector,” said Chief Joanne Jaffe, who oversees the Police Department’s School Safety Division Police officials said on Wednesday that metal detectors could have prevented the violence at the Wildlife Conservation school. But some advocates argue that metal detectors create a negative environment and make students feel as though they are under suspicion. Once installed, scanners are rarely removed.
The school was started in 2007 by the Urban Assembly, a nonprofit organization that runs 21 small schools across the city, serving primarily low-income and academically struggling students. “This is a school, it was determined, that did not need metal detectors,” said Chief Joanne Jaffe, who oversees the Police Department’s School Safety Division.
Three years ago, the school changed principals and appears to have faced some challenges since then: In a school survey conducted last year, just 55 percent of students said that they felt safe in the hallways, bathrooms, locker rooms and cafeteria, down from 74 percent the year before. The Wildlife Conservation school was started in 2007 by the Urban Assembly, a nonprofit organization that runs 21 small schools across the city, serving primarily low-income and academically struggling students.
Student test scores are low: This year 13 percent of the middle school students passed the state reading tests, and 5 percent passed the state math tests. In 2016, the school’s four-year high school graduation rate was 73 percent. More than half of the high school students were chronically absent that year, meaning they missed more than 10 percent of school days.Student test scores are low: This year 13 percent of the middle school students passed the state reading tests, and 5 percent passed the state math tests. In 2016, the school’s four-year high school graduation rate was 73 percent. More than half of the high school students were chronically absent that year, meaning they missed more than 10 percent of school days.
Three years ago, the school changed principals, and it appears to have faced some challenges since: In a school survey conducted last year, just 55 percent of students said that they felt safe in the hallways, bathrooms, locker rooms and cafeteria, down from 74 percent the year before.
On Wednesday, as the school was plunged into a lockdown, the safety felt all the more elusive.
Lennette Berry’s 13-year-old daughter texted her from where she was stranded, in theater class. A boy had attacked two of his classmates, the girl, an eighth grader, wrote in a text message.
“Was he being bullied?” Ms. Berry texted back. “Yes,” her daughter replied.