5 injured in knife fight at Mississauga school
Last Updated: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 | 3:17 PM ET Comments167Recommend130CBC News
St. Joseph Secondary School is on Creditview Road in Mississauga, Ont. Peel Regional Police made two arrests Wednesday morning after a multiple stabbing incident on the grounds of a Mississauga, Ont., high school.
The two males arrested — one 16 and the other 17 — have both been charged with attempted murder.
Five people — including a female teacher — were injured in a fight at St. Joseph Catholic Secondary School. Two were injured seriously enough to require hospital treatment.
According to police, a male student armed with a knife started attacking other male students at about 8:30 a.m. outside the school.
Other students said they believed the attacker was getting even for injuries he received from the others on Monday at the school at 5555 Creditview Rd., near Mavis Road and Britannia Road West.
One of the injured students was airlifted to Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital, while a second student was taken to Credit Valley Hospital.
Two other students, and a teacher who apparently tried to break up the fight, received minor injuries and were not hospitalized.
Police initially placed the school under lockdown and then education officials closed the facility for the rest of the day while the investigation continued.
Grade 9 student Damone Johnson was supposed to be writing his French exam, so he knew the incident was a serious one.
"They wouldn't do a practice [lockdown] in the middle of an exam," he said.
Another Grade 9 student, Laura Iacobucci, was writing a business exam.
"Well, I was scared because we're just writing and then all of a sudden they came on [the public address system] and said we're initiating a lockdown procedure and no one knew what to do. And then the teacher came on the announcements saying, everything's fine, everything's handled, so that calmed us down a bit."
After about two hours of investigation, police lifted the lockdown and the school sent the students home.
Bruce Campbell, a spokesman for the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, called it "an unusual incident, to be sure" and reassured parents that the community's schools are safe.
