Knife-Wielding Student Attacks Peer at LA High School, Dozens Flee

A student armed with a large knife attacked another teen at a Los Angeles campus Monday, triggering a shelter-in-place order. One student suffered a minor cut; a suspect was taken into custody.

Knife Attack at Westchester Campus Sends Students Scrambling

A student carrying a large knife attacked another teen at a shared Los Angeles high school campus Monday afternoon, sending dozens of screaming students running, NY Post Metro reports.

At approximately 12:30 p.m., a male student walked into the quad area of the joint campus housing Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnets high school and WISH Academy charter school armed with what witnesses described as a "big knife." A second student approached and confronted him. The knife-wielding teen responded by punching the other boy before chasing him across the grounds as students fled in panic.

"It was a big knife," student Kaylin Lewis told KTLA. "When the knife was pulled out, I just ran away. The whole thing was surreal."

Another student, Kaylani Bates, said the situation remained unclear in the immediate aftermath. "We heard it was rivalry gangs, but we're not really sure what happened," Bates told KTLA. "There were a lot of people chasing him."

School officials issued a shelter-in-place order while the armed student was still on campus. The Los Angeles School Police Department responded quickly and took a student into custody.

The boy who was confronted sustained a minor cut, according to school officials. The Los Angeles Unified School District issued a statement saying students and staff were safe and that no serious injuries had occurred. "There is no ongoing threat to our campus. Instruction has resumed as normal," the district said, adding that the Los Angeles School Police Department would provide additional patrols around the campus as a precaution.

Parents, however, expressed anger over what they described as a delayed notification from the school. One parent raised concern that a student had been left alone in a hallway during the lockdown, potentially in proximity to the armed teen.

"To have a child locked in a hallway by himself, unable to get into a classroom because it's a lockdown and you can't reopen the door? That's insane because anything could've happened to that kid in the hallway," the parent told KTLA.

A second parent said the experience of learning about the incident from their child before hearing from the school was deeply alarming. "To not know what's going on and to have your son or daughter call you before the school does — it's really scary to know he had to go through that alone," the parent said.

The district stated it takes "any incident involving student safety extremely seriously" and pledged continued cooperation with law enforcement to maintain a safe learning environment.

Source: NY Post Metro