15-year-old arrested for stabbing, seriously injuring classmate at Fairfax County high school

On Wednesday morning, a student was stabbed as a fight ensued at West Potomac High School in Fairfax County, Virginia. One male was stabbed multiple times, allegedly by a fellow classmate, when a fight broke out between three students.

A 15-year-old male student allegedly stabbed a 16-year-old male during the fight, leaving the 16-year-old with life-threatening injuries, but medical teams were able to stabilize him. According to NBC Washington, the 15-year-old was taken into custody and charged with malicious wounding. 

The third student involved in the fight was questioned by police. Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis told reporters, "A third person who we are questioning, we are not describing him as a person in custody because, at the moment, we don't anticipate any criminal charges on this third person."

The stabbing occurred at around 9:40 am on Wednesday, and after the incident took place, a swarm of police as well as other emergency personnel arrived at the school, which was put on "Stay Put, Stay Tuned" protocol for safety.

Nobody was allowed to leave or enter as police arrived on scene, leading to parents being shaken, wanting to get their children away from the scene. A number of students witnessed the stabbing and were disturbed as a result. Parents grew angry with the school district, as it took approximately 30 minutes for the school to tell them what happened. Officials claimed that before informing parents, they needed to secure the school.

There have also been questions and backlash surrounding a teacher, who was seen on video appearing to walk away from the fight as it was occurring. It is not clear if the teacher went to get help, or avoided the situation altogether, per ABC7.

"There was a teacher there when they were fighting, but he just walked off,” a student said. “Why would a teacher just stare and then walk off?” 

"There was a kid on the floor getting beaten,” said parent Shelly Arnoldi, who has a daughter who is a senior at the school. “I know he didn't know the severity, but it's impossible to imagine that's okay."

Despite Fairfax County Public Schools launching a "pilot program" to detect weapons with metal detectors, the system was not installed at the school at the time of the stabbing. The county, instead of putting metal detectors in schools all at once, announced on April 10 that they would be doing random selection of high schools with the metal detectors. It had been installed at Edison High School on Wednesday, but not at West Potomac.