Walnut Creek student arrested for allegedly stabbing another student
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - The Mt. Diablo Unified School District brough in extra counselors, psychologists and therapy dogs to the Northgate High School campus, the day after a teenage girl was stabbed on the campus.
Her classmate, a ninth-grade boy was arrested for the crime. Walnut Creek police said the student is facing attempted murder and mayhem charges.
It happened in the middle of the school day, around 1 pm, on the campus.
"I saw a girl just sitting there, and she had blood all over her neck. It was a sight to see. It was scary," said freshman Max Eguizabal.
According to witnesses several teachers and the school's vice principal tackled the boy after the stabbing and detained him until police could arrive.
"I saw the student running back, and he went in front of the science wing door," Tristan April, a sophomore student, said. "A teacher was able to grab him, restrain him and take him to the ground."
The high school's sports medicine teacher was called over to render first aid to the injured girl until paramedics arrived.
"It makes me feel unsafe, that someone you could know could do something like this. I knew both of them. Never saw this coming," said freshman student, Aiden Heaney.
The school district added additional counselors, psychologists and three therapy dogs to the campus today to help students process what happened.
Some students said the 9th grade boy accused of the attack, needed that kind of intervention before the incident happened.
"He should have been in contact with counselors," said junior Julia Ognian. "Someone should have stepped up and said something."
Mt. Diablo Unified School District Superintendent, Adam Clark said teachers and staff are trained to respond to these types of crises and "performed tremendously" in this instance. He agreed there is an ongoing need for student mental health support.
"I feel for our stduents who have to go through events like this," Clark said. "We have been using more social emotional learning into our daily practices... but it is a growing need in our student population that we have to address."
Clark said he is not allowed to say whether the student arrested for the stabbing had a prior disciplinary record at Northgate or other schools.
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