LOWER ALSACE TOWNSHIP, Pa. - January 9, 2008 -- Three students were stabbed this morning at a junior/senior high school where authorities had also called in the bomb squad
The incident happened just before 8:15 Wednesday morning, inside Antietam Middle-Senior High School in Lower Alsace Township in Berks County.
Fifteen-year-old Jasmen Clark said she was sitting in her first period English class when a fellow classmate ran
By the time the 13-year-old attacker was done, three classmates had been stabbed or slashed. A 16-year-old girl was taken to Reading Hospital with cuts to both hands, Reading Hospital spokesman William J. Rudolph Jr. said. Doctors also treated a 15-year-old girl with a small wound to her upper back and a 14-year-old boy with a small wound to his upper right arm, he said.
Ninth-grader Jim Greager, 14, said he was in a hallway when he saw another student running down the hall screaming, "Help! Help! Help!"
Brian Macluskie, 15, also a ninth-grader, said students thought it was a drill when the school was evacuated.
"We had no clue," he said. "We thought it was just a drill until we saw cop cars out front.
"People were crying; they were scared. Everyone was calling parents on cell phones. Rumors started flying," Macluskie said.
The Reading bomb squad and numerous police agencies were called to the scene, said state police Lt. Thomas G. McDaniel said.
Principal James Snyder and a teacher confronted the student in a hallway after the initial assault, and talked to him for about 15 minutes, trying to calm him and persuade him to go to the cafeteria or Snyder's office.
"He was mad at a lot of people and a lot of things, and the school," Snyder said.
When it appeared the boy was unwilling to surrender, another teacher, English instructor David Kase, walked up behind the boy and swatted his arm, knocking the propane torch from his hand, Snyder said.
"We pushed him to the wall and kept him to a confined area so he wasn't going anywhere," Snyder said. "He wasn't saying anything to us."
Police said the student had brought two bags to school. One of the bags contained two-gallon gas tank filled with fuel, a water bottle with lantern fuel, knives and firecrackers. The other bag had more knives and school supplies.
Officials also puzzled over the student's motive, saying he was not a known troublemaker or particularly withdrawn or brooding. Police found a note at the boy's house that they hoped would shed some light.
"This was not a student who was a regular or frequent flyer to my office for discipline at all," Snyder said. "I would classify him as a regular student, nothing that strikes me out of the ordinary. I've replayed this in my mind ... and there is nothing that triggers me to say I saw this coming."
The suspect, whose name was widely circulated by students but not confirmed by police, is expected to be charged as a juvenile. The charges have yet to be determined.
Berks County District Attorney John Adams said the boy will be kept at the county juvenile detention center pending the outcome of his case.
The school in Lower Alsace Township enrolls grades seven through 12. It will reopen Thursday with counselors and law enforcement on hand to talk to students and parents.
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The Associated Press and Action News complied information for this story.
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