Students returned to Trickum Middle School in Gwinnett County Tuesday morning a day after district officials said a male student stabbed a teacher with a “butcher knife.”
Additional police officers and counselors were at the school and prepared to assuage anxieties and help kids process their feelings, according to a letter Principal Ryan Queen sent to parents.
School administrators personally called the families of students who witnessed the Monday incident, Queen said in the letter. Administrators are also working to make Tuesday “as normal a school day as possible,” but will have increased police presence “to provide our students and staff with an additional sense of security and to calm any anxiety,” the letter says.
“We have never had a situation like this at our school and I know we are all concerned about this,” Queen said in a letter to parents. “The fact that one of our Trickum Middle family was hurt at the hands of a student is very upsetting.”
An eighth grade field trip was also rescheduled because of the incident, Queen said in the letter.
READ | Atlanta teen charged in Gwinnett bowling alley killing
A 13-year-old boy was detained by a school resource officer after the Monday afternoon stabbing, a district spokeswoman said. The eighth grader called a language arts teacher over during a class change, then pulled out the eight-inch knife and stabbed her in the chest, according to a letter sent to parents by the shool’s principal. The student then grabbed a female student, but a school resource officer quickly disarmed and detained him, according to Gwinnett County Public Schools. He was later transported to Gwinnett County’s Youth Detention Center.
The teacher was conscious and talking to first responders while being transported to the hospital, according to Queen. The school was locked down briefly due to the incident, but the lockdown was lifted as of 3:30 p.m. The incident did not impact dismissal, Queen said in the letter.
What charges the student will face were not immediately clear, but he will likely be charged with aggravated assault, possession of a weapon on school grounds and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony, a district spokeswoman said. The student will also face disciplinary measures from the school.
Like Gwinnett County News on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
Stay up to the minute with breaking news on Channel 2 Action News This Morning
About the Author
