Two students stabbed and three arrested after brawl at LA high school
Two students were stabbed and two others injured in a brawl that took place on the campus of a Los Angeles high school.
Officials say that the violence broke out at Van Nuys High School, which is located 18 miles northwest of downtown LA.
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said that 11 students were involved in the fight, which saw one student pull out an “unidentified” weapon.
Both of the stabbed students were taken to nearby hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries after the Wednesday morning incident.
One other injured student was taken to hospital, while another was treated at school for minor injuries. All of those injured were boys under the age of 18.
Authorities say that law enforcement arrived at the school within three minutes and that three students were detained for questioning.
A lockdown was immediately put in place and lunch was brought to students in their classrooms to prevent large crowds in the cafeteria or quad area.
“This is one of those moments where you hold your breath and once you receive the call and you hope that the initial information is not as revealing or as bad as what actually occurred,” Mr Carvalho told reporters. “One incident like this one is one incident too many.”
And he added: “This is the type of incident that is difficult to anticipate, and we have to rely on what people know and can convey to us.
“These don’t necessarily happen spontaneously. So we continue to urge parents or students to tell us about what they know so we can prevent these types of incidents from occurring.”
Around 2,400 students are enrolled on campus, with 2,200 at the high school and 200 at a continuation school.
LAUSD is the second-largest school district in the nation with more than 567,000 students and a budget of more than $18bn.