Student stabbed in fight at Firestone High School suffered 'non-life threatening' injuries
A 16-year-old Firestone High School student was taken to Akron Children's Hospital for non-life threatening injuries Friday after being stabbed by another student during a bathroom altercation, according to Akron police.
Police were called at 1:12 p.m. to assist the school resource officer with the incident, said Akron Police Lt. Michael Miller. The resource officer detained the alleged assailant, a 14-year-old male student, who was then taken into custody.
The student was brought to the police station for questioning.
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Felonious assault and possibly other charges are pending the outcome of the investigation, a release from the police department said.
Christine Fowler-Mack, Superintendent of Akron Public Schools, said the district is grateful the student resource officer "responded instantly, went into the bathroom, and apprehended the suspect while summoning aid for the victim.
"Akron police are working with our security teams to assess what led to this senseless act of violence and how a weapon ended up in a student's hands while in school," she added. "Our school administrators at Firestone have been in communication with Firestone families conveying everything we know about what happened today.
"We pray for the student who was attacked and will be reassessing security procedures as we prepare for class next week," she said.
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Pat Shipe, Akron Education Association President, said teachers want something to be done immediately about violence in the schools.
"We believe that serious, violent student behavior is on the rise," she said. "We have been trying to discuss this with the administration for the past few years."
She said the association met with Fowler-Mack last January and saw some increase in the number of security personnel and metal detection equipment. However, Shipe said those steps have been insufficient and that more collaboration between teachers and administrators is needed to address the problem, along with added resources, including counseling staff to deal with problem students.
"We believe it needs to be immediately addressed because of progressive, aggressive student behavior in our schools," she said. "We believe they are either not hearing us, or choosing not to hear us when it comes to doing something about these violent student behaviors.
"It is not sustainable and it can't continue this way," she said.
Eric Marotta can be reached at emarotta@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarottaEric.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Student stabbed, another in custody after fight at Akron Firestone HS
