Searchingtoo's Blog

From Wisconsin:On day metal detector debuts, student is stabbed at Hamilton High Girl, 15, taken to hospital for treatment; 2 students arrested By LINDA SPICE
lspice@journalsentinel.com Posted: Sept. 12, 2008

A 15-year-old student at Hamilton High School was stabbed several times Friday inside a restroom at the school by a fellow student, prompting a morning lockdown at the school on Milwaukee’s southwest side.

Stabbing

Photo/Tom Lynn

Hamilton High School was on lockdown Friday morning after a female student was stabbed in a school restroom. The girl, 15, was taken to a hospital for treatment.

education@jsonline .

The attack came on the day the school, at 6215 W. Warnimont Ave., debuted a $50,000 airport-quality metal detector.

The victim’s injuries were not considered life-threatening, but she was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Police arrested two 16-year-old girls in connection with the stabbing, and by 10:30 a.m. the lockdown was lifted, and the school returned to its normal schedule, said Roseann St. Aubin, spokeswoman for Milwaukee Public Schools.

Milwaukee police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said officers recovered a weapon, and that the suspected assailant is known to police, who were still sorting out what role the second suspect may have played. Schwartz said the victim and the suspects had been involved in an ongoing feud.

St. Aubin said Hamilton’s principal planned to send a letter home to parents Friday, which will likely ask families to recognize and inform school officials when their child is having any issues at school, particularly if they involve another student.

Officials said the new metal detector had been used only on tardy students Friday, while school staff learned to use the equipment. School officials did not know whether the suspects had been scanned by the new device.

MPS has purchased four of the new archway-style scanners, St. Aubin said.

Two are to be put in place at Hamilton, which has about 2,200 students, and two will be put in place at Vincent High School. The intention is that they will be used daily, just at belt scanners are already used at Custer High School, she said.

She said she expects parents will have questions on the future use of the scanners in light of today’s stabbing.

“When there is an incident, it’s a chance for us to review the system and see whether anything has to be changed,” she said. “The school safety aides assigned to that school and the supervisor speaking with the school will go over the incident as part of a normal review and see if they have to tweak anything.”