NEW YORK — Newly discovered cellphone videos posted on social media show the aftermath of a stabbing inside a Long Island high school between two boys, which may have been committed by a girl.
When security was tightened at Lindenhurst High School on Tuesday, a pocket knife was found in a student’s backpack. It comes when some parents said their children were too scared to go back to school.
“My son doesn’t want to go to school. My son is afraid to go to school,” said Gina Tabone, who along with her husband Angelo said they kept their eighth-grade son at home a day after the incident during a fight.
The melee broke out in a school hallway between two boys, a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old. Mum Melissa Kurz said her daughter knew both the stabbing victim and her alleged attacker, adding that she “physically saw what happened and had blood splattered all over her shoes.”
Kurz said the fight stemmed from feelings for a girl.
“The guy who was stabbed, he was dating a girl, and they had broken up. And the new guy, the guy who stabbed him, they’re dating now. And it’s been going back and forth,” Kurz said. This claim has not been confirmed or denied by police and school officials.
The 13-year-old boy stabbed in the leg on Monday remains hospitalized at Stony Brook University Hospital as Suffolk County Police describe his condition as stable. She had suffered a stab wound so severe that a school official and a police officer had to apply tourniquets to stop the bleeding, Assistant Inspector Sean Beran said.
The knife allegedly used is said to have been about six inches long. We don’t know how he got to school. The alleged attacker has been arrested.
Fighting in high school isn’t unique or surprising, according to mom Jeannie Sailer.
“I knew this was coming. I saw it coming,” she said, adding that her 14-year-old son was bullied at school last year.
Sailer noted that it was part of a school atmosphere of social media bullying and physical violence that she says school officials failed to address.
“They don’t listen. I get up every month at the school board and they don’t listen,” Sailer said. School Why?
It was unclear if the harassment had anything to do with Monday’s incident. On Tuesday, school officials said the knife attack was an isolated incident. In an earlier statement, the school principal said “safety and security is a top priority” at the school.
But parents still want to know how the knife got into the building and what will be done to better protect their children in the future.
“I’ve said it and I’ll say it again: Lindenhurst High School is not a safe learning environment for our children,” Sailer said.
Despite the school district’s written statement, school officials have yet to respond to specific questions about the parents’ concerns. Some of these parents said they were in the process of pulling their children out of college.