Quick Take
Three people — two students and a staff member — were injured in two related attacks, including a stabbing, at Watsonville High School on Thursday morning, authorities said. Four students, ages 14 to 16, were arrested and face multiple felony charges, while police continue investigating possible motives and any links to a recent on-campus gun arrest.
Two students and one staff member were injured in back-to-back incidents, including a stabbing, on the Watsonville High School campus Thursday morning.
Watsonville Police Department Interim Chief David Rodriguez said during a news conference Thursday afternoon that the three victims are expected to recover from their injuries.
Four suspects, all Watsonville High students between the ages of 14 and 16, were apprehended and face charges including felony battery, assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. They’re being held in Santa Cruz County Juvenile Hall.
Police say that the first incident happened in the quad near the front office shortly after 10 a.m., when a 16-year-old stabbed a 14-year-old student. A staff member quickly intervened and was stabbed as he tried to hold the student down, and another staff member “wrestled” the knife from the student’s hands.
The 16-year-old student suspect was charged with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Rodriguez said a knife was the only weapon used in the attack and it was recovered.
Rodriguez said the second incident stemmed from this first one. He said another student “tried to intervene and get involved” but fled from the scene of the stabbing after police arrived. That student got two other students and then the three physically assaulted a fourth 14-year-old victim “around the corner” from where the stabbing occurred. The student suffered moderate injuries.
The interim chief said those students didn’t use a weapon but were charged with assault with a deadly weapon because “the force used was so great that it amounted to the use of a deadly weapon.”
The student-suspects include one 14-year-old and two 15-year-olds. They were also charged with felony battery and conspiracy.
At this point in the investigation, Rodriguez said police don’t know if the students had been involved in prior criminal incidents or if the attacks were gang-related. He said police will also look into whether the attacks Thursday are related to a student who was arrested and accused of bringing a gun to school last week.
He added that because state law strictly limits how police interview juveniles, investigators have not been able to speak directly with the students who were arrested. However, because the incidents took place when students were passing between classes and some people recorded videos, as did the school’s security cameras, Rodriguez said officers think they’ll be able to determine what occurred.
“We’re confident, just from the video surveillance, from talking to witnesses that we should be able to get to the bottom of it at some point,” he said. “Like I said, the challenge is that we were not able to interview the suspects in this so we’re missing that piece of it.”
Rodriguez said a new Watsonville High School school resource officer — an officer coming out of retirement – is in training and will be at the school later this year. But currently, there is no resource officer there, as there is at Pajaro Valley High School. That officer sometimes supports Watsonville High school when needed.
Pajaro Valley Unified School District Superintendent Heather Contreras said Thursday’s violence was “a very traumatizing event” and the district will be providing support services to all students and staff.
“I think, in this incident, staff acted very quickly,” she said. “The incident was mitigated in only under two minutes. Staff did exactly what they were trained to do and minimize the incident. Campus security was right where they should have been, following all of our protocols, and we did the best that we could.”
She said class will resume Friday.
Brandon Diniz, president of the PVUSD teachers union, said he thinks the district should cancel classes Friday to allow staff to “process all this senseless violence” and to debrief on Thursday’s attacks and last week’s student arrest.
“Students are talking about retaliation, people do not feel safe or prepared, and we need to confront this head-on and not proceed with having the school open tomorrow,” he said.
The school was under a shelter-in-place order earlier in the day while the police department investigated. Contreras said at around 12:25 p.m., parents and guardians began picking up their students and others went home on the bus.
Several parents told Lookout that it was a stressful and sad day. They texted their kids as soon as they learned what happened and arrived to the campus quickly to pick them up. One mom said she felt like, “it’s one thing after another,” after a student was arrested for gun possession last week, and now the stabbing.
Luis, a parent of a sophomore daughter, said he thinks the school should have more security on campus. He declined to provide his last name.
“First as a parent, the first thing was to come and check and see if she was OK,” he said. “And then I kind of was worried a bit. But everything’s OK, I guess.”
— Kevin Painchaud contributed to this report.
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