Parents Left In Dark On Scissors Attack At School
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - At Palmetto Senior High School in upscale Pinecrest Wednesday a female 11th grader allegedly attacked a boy with a pair of scissors she had grabbed from the teacher's desk.
When the teacher intervened in the alleged scissors attack, both she and the boy, a ninth grader, received minor wounds. The girl was subdued and arrested by Miami-Dade school police. The victims were treated on the scene. The teacher was referred to workers compensation for further help with her injuries.
CBS4 News learned details of the incident early on Thursday from a variety of police and school sources, not from the Miami-Dade school district. Some parents were angry to learn of it from CBS4 reporter Gary Nelson.
"I think I should have learned it from the school, I think they should have put some type of call out...to let parents know," said parent Greg Ivy. "This is my first learning of this."
What parents did learn sooner, they learned from their kids who came home telling stories from the grapevine. Versions ranged from a student, or teacher, or both having been stabbed with scissors or maybe a knife.
Student Isa White said everything she knew of the incident she learned from rumor.
"I haven't heard anything from teachers or anything," White said. "They haven't made any announcement or anything."
Some school board members were livid that administrators sent no news home to parents and did not tell students what happened on campus.
"Every case of school violence needs to be taken very seriously," said school board member Carlos Curbelo. "Information needs to be provided to the community and to board members and to the public on an immediate basis."
Board member Larry Feldman echoed that opinion, adding that potentially troublesome kids need help early on.
"If we intervene early," Feldman said, "deal with kids' problems beginning in elementary school, then they diminish significantly at the high school level."
Late Thursday the school district finally released a police report confirming the scissors attack, attempted stabbings, and injuries at Palmetto Senior High.
Regional Superintendent Alex Martinez said he understood the anger on the part of parents who were not informed of the incident.
"I agree. I would like to know what's going on," Martinez said. "The principal made the decision to go ahead and not send the information out."
Martinez said Principal Allison Harley determined parents and students did not need to know of the scissors attack, given that there was no ongoing threat on the campus.
