MOB Karen
10-20-2006, 11:09 AM
Did you guys hear about the latest school death. Well, it's not a shooting, but a stabbing. :(
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Posted on Thu, Oct. 19, 2006
Teen stabbed to death at Florida high school
By Henry Pierson Curtis
The Orlando Sentinel
(MCT)
ORLANDO, Fla. - Grief counselors and Orange County deputies are expected to turn out in force Friday morning at University High School to reassure students and parents in the wake of a sophomore's violent death on campus Thursday.
The stabbing of Michael Nieves during a fight over a girl prompted school administrators and Sheriff Kevin Beary to criticize state legislators for failing to classify "common" pocketknives as concealed weapons.
"The bottom line is we have a 15-year-old stabbed by a 17-year-old, who is now deceased at Florida Hospital East," Beary said, standing outside the high school. "I'm making an issue of it today."
The fight broke out about 2:15 p.m. while hundreds of students waited to board buses for home. Tension between Michael and Kelvin DeLaCruz had been festering for weeks but flared during Thursday's lunch hour, according to deputies and students.
DeLaCruz was charged Thursday evening with first-degree murder. He is being held without bail at the county jail.
Violence in the county's schools increased 550 percent from 2002 through 2005, the last year for which data is are available, according to the state Department of Education. The most recent campus killing locally also happened at University High School in 1998.
"We talk all the time but nobody listens to us about violent video games where they're stabbing and shooting each other," Beary said. "We're living in a culture of violence."
Crystal Rosario, 15, who ate lunch near the boys and later saw the fatal confrontation, said, "Everybody used to be friends until the girl got involved."
At the end of classes, Crystal and her friends headed for the bus loop on the east side of the campus. No one suspected anything was about to happen, she said.
"It's where everybody chills," Crystal said. "For some reason, the deans weren't there today. It was, like, perfect timing."
Shouting and shoving signaled the start of the fight as students pressed closer to see what was happening. Punches were thrown, followed by blood and screaming, said juniors Crystal Rosario and Glorivel Rodriguez.
"I just seen the two boys fighting, then one of them got stabbed in the head and cheek and down here," said Glorivel, pointing toward her abdomen and right flank.
School-district spokesman Dylan Thomas said assistant principals, teachers and other adults were monitoring the bus loop when the fight erupted.
Students who were interviewed said classmates tried to save Michael by carrying him toward the closest building.
Paramedics from Orange County Fire Rescue tried to resuscitate Michael when his heart stopped before reaching Florida Hospital East. He was pronounced dead at 3:42 p.m., sheriff's spokesman Jim Solomons said.
In the panic and confusion, DeLaCruz fled, diving beneath a nearby bus, and ran to a two-story classroom building by the bus loop, deputies said.
Administrators and deputies assigned to the high school enacted a disaster plan and immediately locked down the campus, preventing anyone from entering or leaving.
"We had lots of help from students," Beary said, describing how tips from classmates helped deputies find DeLaCruz hiding in a second-floor classroom where he had tried to change clothes.
A folding knife with a 3-inch, serrated blade - thought to be the murder weapon - was found inside the building, Beary said.
Principal David Christiansen was boarding a plane to Chicago to run the city's weekend marathon when he looked up at a monitor and saw CNN reporting the stabbing on his school's campus.
He left Orlando International Airport and returned immediately to University High.
Michael's death - during America's Safe Schools Week - was the 49th murder this year in unincorporated Orange County. It tied the record set last year, according to homicide investigators.
Following school shootings in Colorado and Pennsylvania, Michael's stabbing was the 15th school-related violent death since the start of the school year, said Kenneth S. Trump, a school-security expert based in Cleveland.
School killings have jumped because national interest in violence prevention has waned, Trump said. School-safety funding cuts since Sept. 11 have reached a point at which a typical fast-food restaurant has tougher safety procedures than most schools, he said.
"They're better at protecting hamburgers than we are with our teachers and our kids," Trump said.
Orange County Schools Superintendent Ron Blocker arrived on the campus of 3,600 students about an hour after the killing.
He ruled out the need for metal detectors, saying the schools already take extensive safety measures, such as searches by K-9 teams and enforcing zero-tolerance weapons policies. "I feel that that's the best you can do at this time," Blocker said.
The lockdown Thursday lasted about 90 minutes, forcing parents who regularly pick up their children after school to wait in their cars and minivans.
None of the parents said their children expressed fear about going to school. Newsweek magazine ranked University as one of the top 200 high schools in the country last year.
When the lockdown ended shortly after 3:30 p.m., students did not know Michael had died. Streaming through gates in the fence around the 95-acre campus, the teens' faces ranged from jovial to somber to tear-streaked.
Besides calling in grief counselors, Blocker postponed a football game Friday between University and Edgewater highs at the University campus. The game will be rescheduled.
In a taped phone message Thursday to University High School parents, Principal Christiansen offered reassurance: "In times of tragedy, it's important that we come together to support each other. Tomorrow will be a challenging time for all of us, but trust that exceptional support will be here for our students, faculty and staff."
__________________________________________________ ____________________________
Posted on Thu, Oct. 19, 2006
Teen stabbed to death at Florida high school
By Henry Pierson Curtis
The Orlando Sentinel
(MCT)
ORLANDO, Fla. - Grief counselors and Orange County deputies are expected to turn out in force Friday morning at University High School to reassure students and parents in the wake of a sophomore's violent death on campus Thursday.
The stabbing of Michael Nieves during a fight over a girl prompted school administrators and Sheriff Kevin Beary to criticize state legislators for failing to classify "common" pocketknives as concealed weapons.
"The bottom line is we have a 15-year-old stabbed by a 17-year-old, who is now deceased at Florida Hospital East," Beary said, standing outside the high school. "I'm making an issue of it today."
The fight broke out about 2:15 p.m. while hundreds of students waited to board buses for home. Tension between Michael and Kelvin DeLaCruz had been festering for weeks but flared during Thursday's lunch hour, according to deputies and students.
DeLaCruz was charged Thursday evening with first-degree murder. He is being held without bail at the county jail.
Violence in the county's schools increased 550 percent from 2002 through 2005, the last year for which data is are available, according to the state Department of Education. The most recent campus killing locally also happened at University High School in 1998.
"We talk all the time but nobody listens to us about violent video games where they're stabbing and shooting each other," Beary said. "We're living in a culture of violence."
Crystal Rosario, 15, who ate lunch near the boys and later saw the fatal confrontation, said, "Everybody used to be friends until the girl got involved."
At the end of classes, Crystal and her friends headed for the bus loop on the east side of the campus. No one suspected anything was about to happen, she said.
"It's where everybody chills," Crystal said. "For some reason, the deans weren't there today. It was, like, perfect timing."
Shouting and shoving signaled the start of the fight as students pressed closer to see what was happening. Punches were thrown, followed by blood and screaming, said juniors Crystal Rosario and Glorivel Rodriguez.
"I just seen the two boys fighting, then one of them got stabbed in the head and cheek and down here," said Glorivel, pointing toward her abdomen and right flank.
School-district spokesman Dylan Thomas said assistant principals, teachers and other adults were monitoring the bus loop when the fight erupted.
Students who were interviewed said classmates tried to save Michael by carrying him toward the closest building.
Paramedics from Orange County Fire Rescue tried to resuscitate Michael when his heart stopped before reaching Florida Hospital East. He was pronounced dead at 3:42 p.m., sheriff's spokesman Jim Solomons said.
In the panic and confusion, DeLaCruz fled, diving beneath a nearby bus, and ran to a two-story classroom building by the bus loop, deputies said.
Administrators and deputies assigned to the high school enacted a disaster plan and immediately locked down the campus, preventing anyone from entering or leaving.
"We had lots of help from students," Beary said, describing how tips from classmates helped deputies find DeLaCruz hiding in a second-floor classroom where he had tried to change clothes.
A folding knife with a 3-inch, serrated blade - thought to be the murder weapon - was found inside the building, Beary said.
Principal David Christiansen was boarding a plane to Chicago to run the city's weekend marathon when he looked up at a monitor and saw CNN reporting the stabbing on his school's campus.
He left Orlando International Airport and returned immediately to University High.
Michael's death - during America's Safe Schools Week - was the 49th murder this year in unincorporated Orange County. It tied the record set last year, according to homicide investigators.
Following school shootings in Colorado and Pennsylvania, Michael's stabbing was the 15th school-related violent death since the start of the school year, said Kenneth S. Trump, a school-security expert based in Cleveland.
School killings have jumped because national interest in violence prevention has waned, Trump said. School-safety funding cuts since Sept. 11 have reached a point at which a typical fast-food restaurant has tougher safety procedures than most schools, he said.
"They're better at protecting hamburgers than we are with our teachers and our kids," Trump said.
Orange County Schools Superintendent Ron Blocker arrived on the campus of 3,600 students about an hour after the killing.
He ruled out the need for metal detectors, saying the schools already take extensive safety measures, such as searches by K-9 teams and enforcing zero-tolerance weapons policies. "I feel that that's the best you can do at this time," Blocker said.
The lockdown Thursday lasted about 90 minutes, forcing parents who regularly pick up their children after school to wait in their cars and minivans.
None of the parents said their children expressed fear about going to school. Newsweek magazine ranked University as one of the top 200 high schools in the country last year.
When the lockdown ended shortly after 3:30 p.m., students did not know Michael had died. Streaming through gates in the fence around the 95-acre campus, the teens' faces ranged from jovial to somber to tear-streaked.
Besides calling in grief counselors, Blocker postponed a football game Friday between University and Edgewater highs at the University campus. The game will be rescheduled.
In a taped phone message Thursday to University High School parents, Principal Christiansen offered reassurance: "In times of tragedy, it's important that we come together to support each other. Tomorrow will be a challenging time for all of us, but trust that exceptional support will be here for our students, faculty and staff."