Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.
Security at Gompers Elementary-Middle School will be ramped up for the remainder of the school year after an eighth grader stabbed another girl in front of a classroom full of students, officials said.
The Detroit Public Schools Community District will increase the number of security guards from two to three and add a police officer at the school, as well as monitor the effective use of metal detectors at all of its schools moving forward, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during a virtual meeting with parents and community members Thursday evening.
Parents expressed concerns about security and the school’s handling of reported tension between the two students leading up to the stabbing. Some asked why the district did not immediately notify parents of what happened or close the school for the remainder of the day. One parent said they found out about the incident from their child, who was “traumatized,” when they picked him up from school.
Vitti said he is committed to investigating the incident further and preventing future violence in schools.
“I want to make this very clear – this is not normal and it’s not acceptable,” he said. “And I say that purposely, because I think we all know the level of violence unfortunately that many of our students experience, sometimes in their home, in their personal life, in the community at large. We have not had an incident like this in a school building in DPSCD over the nine years that I’ve been superintendent.”
The stabbing happened after the mother of one of the students brought a knife to her daughter inside the school, according to the district. The mother set off a metal detector, but was allowed to enter the school without being searched by the security guard on duty, officials said.
The mother and the student were arrested Wednesday, according to the district. The student who was stabbed was released from a hospital, said Vitti.
The district’s protocol is to “check all bags and persons if the metal detector sounds,” Vitti told Chalkbeat. The security guard who let the mother through at Gompers has been put on leave pending an investigation, officials said.
Vitti added the school system will make any necessary changes to its security protocols and will increase its monitoring of how schools implement them.
“Most importantly, the victim of the attack will physically recover but the school and the entire district must use this incident as a dire example of why implementation of safety and security protocols must always be implemented,” said Vitti.
A fight reportedly occurred between the two students outside the school earlier this week, Vitti said during Thursday’s meeting. The school’s administration was aware of the fight, he said, and both parents were contacted and asked to come to the school to talk about the “tension” between the students.
On Wednesday, after going through the metal detector, the mother who allegedly brought the knife to school went to the main office and asked to talk with an assistant principal about the fight, Vitti said.
“From our preliminary review of the circumstances, the [assistant principal] did not engage the parent,” said Vitti.
The daughter left class to come to the office after her mother asked to see her, the superintendent said.
“What appears on video, allegedly, the mother gives the daughter a knife,” said Vitti.
The daughter then went into a classroom and “slashed” the other student with the knife, Vitti said. Adults, including the principal, intervened in the attack; the principal was injured, he added.
The mother of the victim told WXYZ her daughter was stabbed four times in her head, arm, back, and wrist areas. She said her daughter called her screaming 45 minutes after being dropped off at school.
The district sent a robocall out to inform parents of the incident in the afternoon, according to the superintendent.
“The District’s protocol is for schools to inform parents of a significant incident that occurs at the school no later than that evening or early the next morning,” Vitti told Chalkbeat.
Counselors spoke with the students who were in the classroom, said Vitti, and the district will provide additional support to others in the school who request it.
Gompers will reopen on Monday, the district said.
Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.
