The community of Rockport, Massachusetts, is in shock a day after a bloody attack on a teenage girl at a local middle school.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested Monday on several charges after allegedly stabbing a girl of the same age before classes began at Rockport Middle School.
School officials put the school on lockdown as authorities searched for the suspect, who was found soon after the attack. He's been arraigned.
The stabbing victim is expected to be okay and, on Tuesday evening, the school is holding a meeting for parents.
Here's what we know so far:
Stabbing Inside the School, Search Outside
Local
Police were called to Rockport Middle School around 7:30 a.m. for a report of a stabbing. When they arrived, they found a juvenile female student suffering from an apparent stab wound, but not the attacker, police said.
He'd fled the school before it was put on lockdown, according to police. The search extended outside the school, and he was found there.
Neighbor Nathaniel Mulcahy believes the teenage suspect ran through his backyard — he'd seen a young man struggling in the brambles in a swamp there who dove .
"When the young man noticed me, he dove down on the ground, which is not normal behavior," Mulcahy said.
The teenage suspect was soon found and the lockdown was lifted by 9 a.m., but many classes at Rockport Middle School remained empty after a large number of parents pulled their students from school.
Because the suspected attacker is underage, his name isn't being released. He was identified as a resident of Rockport and arraigned in Salem Juvenile Court on stabbing-related charges Monday evening.
The victim has serious but non-life-threatening injuries, police said Monday. They haven't provided an update on her condition since.
Investigators returned to the school Monday evening, but it remains unclear what they might have been searching for.
The Reaction Among Parents
Parents will have a chance to hear from school officials about the incident at a 7 p.m. meeting Tuesday night in an auditorium at Rockport High School, the superintendent's office said.
This is the last thing any parent in this community expected when they sent their child to school Monday, and many parents said it's not representative of the community.
Parent Madison Guernsey said she was amazed by what happened.
"I didn't know that it would happen at my school. I've seen it across the country but I wouldn’t expect it to happen in my school," she said.
"You never think it would happen in a small area," parent Leianne Lessard said. "My daughter is in eighth grade. I’m sure the school is really safe and doing a nice job with that but it’s just scary."
