A 16-year-old boy was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after he was stabbed by a classmate at a northern Virginia high school, according to local officials.
The student was stabbed by a 15-year-old boy when three students got into a fight inside West Potomac High School in Fairfax County at about 9:40 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Fairfax County Police Department.
The 16-year-old student was rushed to a local hospital with critical injuries — but is now stable and recovering, which Police Chief Kevin Davis told reporters was “a sigh of relief for the entire community.”
The assailant, who has not been identified, was taken into custody and has been charged with malicious wounding, police said. A knife was recovered at the scene. There were no outstanding suspects in the “isolated” incident, cops said.
The third student was being questioned by police, but Davis does not anticipate he will be charged with a crime.
Disturbing footage circulating among the student body shows the students brawling in the hallway, according to NBC Washington. Another image reportedly shows students and adults hovering over a teenager bleeding on the floor.
The stabber and the victim were known to each other, cops said.
“It’s sad [the stabber] is 15 but we’re working through the circumstances of his involvement and the involvement of others,” Davis told reporters outside the high school Wednesday afternoon.
The school remained open and students were back in classes after the stabbing, according to Michelle Reid, superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools.
“While there’s a sense obviously of shock that this would happen … I’m very proud of the response of our staff in this incident,” she said, thanking the first responders who “may have saved a life today.”
There were no metal detectors in place at the school, Reid confirmed.
