Student Stabbed In Back Outside Mt. Vernon High School
MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- One student was taken to a hospital and another was taken into custody following a stabbing outside Mt. Vernon High School in Westchester County on Wednesday.
"They're both students. One of them was placed in an out-of-district placement and was conferring with a counselor," Deputy Superintendent Jeff Gorman said.
There was a confrontation between the two students, which spilled outside. The student who was visiting the counselor was stabbed in the back.
He was taken to Jacobi Medical Center and is expected to survive.
Police searched for the suspect in a wooded area just beyond the school's athletic fields, also searching a nearby residential area.
He was taken into custody after showing up at a nearby hospital with unspecified injuries.
"The person that facilitated the stabbing is in custody at this point in time. The person is in New Rochelle Hospital and they've been arrested by the Mount Vernon Police Department," Mayor Richard Thomas said.
The school has metal detectors, but students say getting a knife through is no difficult task, CBS2's Lou Young reported.
"They don't check all your pockets and stuff," sophomore Thomas Brook said. "They feel it down, but if you have like a pocket knife or something, it could be felt like a charger or like a small cellphone. So if you don't look at it, you might not catch it."
The stabbing set off additional brawls inside the school's cafeteria as tensions boiled over.
"There was like three or four fights one-by-one just popping off. Everybody fighting," Brook told WCBS 880's Alex Silverman. "Hitting each other, everybody getting injured, cut up and stuff."
"I'm not happy about it. It's embarrassing," one senior told 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria. "Somebody could have been burying their son today."
Meanwhile, anxious parents arrived to pick up their children.
"I'm nervous, very nervous, shaking like a leaf," one mother said. "I want to get him out, I want to know that he's safe."
There was no word on what caused the confrontation, however, the mayor said "it appears there's some history here."
"It's a bad idea to use violence to settle your differences," he said. "You've got to find an alternative method. Seek a mentor, seek some kind of mitigation, and know that the city of Mount Vernon is available to help deescalate the situation."
The school district placed security officers at each bus during dismissal and there was a visible police presence, Young reported.