Greg Cergol reporting on the student stabbed by a classmate in Lindenhurst.
Newly discovered cellphone videos posted on social media show the moments after a stabbing inside a Long Island middle school between two boys, which may have been over a girl.
As security was stepped up at Lindenhurst Middle School on Tuesday, a pocketknife was found in the backpack of a student. That comes as some parents said that their children are too scared to return to classes.
"My son doesn’t want to go to school. My son is scared to go to school," said Gina Tabone, who alongside her husband Angelo, said they kept their 8th-grade son at home a day after the incident during a fight.
The melee broke out in a hallway at the school between two boys, a 12-year-old and a 13-year-old. Mom Melissa Kurz said her daughter knows both the stabbing victim and his alleged attacker, and added that she "physically saw what happened and has blood spattered on her shoes."
Kurz said the fight stemmed from feelings about a girl.
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"The boy who got stabbed, he was dating a girl, and they had broken up. And the new boy, the one who stabbed him, are now dating. And it’s been back and forth," said Kurz. That claim has been neither confirmed nor denied by law enforcement and school officials.
The 13-year-old stabbed in the leg Monday remains hospitalized at Stony Brook University Hospital, as Suffolk County police described his condition as stable. he had suffered a stab wound so severe both a school official and a police officer had to apply tourniquets to stop the bleeding, Deputy Inspector Sean Beran said.
The knife believed to have been used was said to be about six inches long. It’s unclear how it got into the school. The alleged attacker was arrested.
Fights in the middle school are neither unique nor surprising, according to mom Jeannie Sailer.
"I knew this was going to happen. I saw this coming," she said, adding that her 14-year-old was a victim of bullying in the school last year.
Sailer noted that it is part of a school atmosphere of social media harassment and physical violence that she said school officials have failed to address.
"They’re not listening. I stand up every month at the board of education and they’re not listening," said Sailer. "Every day you wonder what’s going to happen. There’s no control in the school. Why?"
It was not clear if bullying had anything to do with Monday’s incident. On Tuesday, school officials said the stabbing was an isolated incident. In a previous statement, the school superintendent said that “safety and security is a top priority” at the school.
But parents still want to know how the knife made it into the building, and what will be done to better protect their kids moving forward.
"I’ve said it and I will say it again: Lindenhurst Middle School is not a safe learning environment for our children," Sailer said.
Despite the school district’s written statement, school officials have yet to address specific questions regarding parents’ concerns. Some of those parents have said they are now in the process of taking their children out of the middle school.
