A 17-year-old Nantyr Shores Secondary School student charged with assault with a weapon Monday has been suspended for up to 20 days while the school’s principal conducts an investigation that could lead to his expulsion.
South Simcoe Police charged the student after a 19-year-old former student was jabbed twice in the lower torso with a small pocket knife during an altercation in the school’s parking lot at about 2:45 p.m. The suspect then slashed the victim’s cheek before fleeing school property.
The victim was taken to Royal Victoria Hospital for treatment and was released later in the evening. The injuries were considered superficial. Police arrested the suspect later that evening and seized the knife.
Sgt. Brad Reynolds said the knife had about a two-inch blade and “scraped” the victim’s skin. The victim did not require stitches for the slash to the cheek, Reynolds said.
“The injuries were very minor,” he said. “This is certainly a serious incident, but at first we thought it was much worse.”
Had the injuries been more severe, the student would have been charged with aggravated assault with a weapon or even attempted murder.
Principal Jean Hargreaves, who suspended the student for up to 20 days, must now decide if he should be expelled from the school following her investigation.
“This was certainly a violent act and there are consequences for having a knife at school,” Hargreaves told The Journal.
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“But nothing is black and white. This is very serious, but the young man was not known to be violent in the past at all.”
It is the first time since she came to the school about two years ago that she has had to report the use of weapon to the Ministry of Education, Hargreaves added.
According to South Simcoe Police, the altercation started when the suspect started kicking the door of the victim’s car while it was parked at the school. When the driver got out of the car to stop the damage, the suspect pulled a small knife.
Hargreaves, who has spoken to the teenagers’ mothers, said the 19-year-old was on school property to pick up his sister. The 17-year-old suspect was a friend of the sister, which apparently led to past altercations between the suspect and the victim.
“Apparently he had come on school property before to pick up his sister, which isn’t really a problem,” Hargreaves said.
Hargreaves said her investigation will take all of the factors surrounding the violent altercation into account.
Hargreaves said the ramifications for the student should “promote learning” and “change a pattern of behaviour” rather than just be used as a punishment.
The thought of someone bringing a knife onto school property and even worse, using it, left some students in a somber mood.
“It makes you afraid to say the wrong thing,” one student said. “You don’t wanna make somebody mad.”
Another student said she was surprised to learn a knife had been used on school property.
“You hear about it in Toronto all the time and it’s like nothing, but when it happens up here, it kind of shocks you.”
files from Christy Burton
Files from Christy Burton
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