Horror in the halls

Brooke Ortiz, Staff Writer

Marking the first violent incident of this manner in Miami Killian High School’s history, a senior student proceeded to stab fellow peer on Tuesday, March 31, 2015. Police charged the 17­year old female with a felony of attempted murder and possession of weapons on school grounds after she allegedly stabbed a 15­year old male football player in the school’s cafeteria. The senior, who shall remain anonymous, attacked sophomore Deandre Johnson with a large kitchen knife, along with having two other knives and a large grill fork in her backpack.

Due to the substantial blood loss, Deandre fainted and was airlifted to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, formerly known as Miami Children’s Hospital. Despite an initially fatal prognosis, including a cut artery and collapsed lung, doctors now expect Johnson to fully recover.

The victim’s father claims that his son did not know the girl apart from sharing one class with her. The motive for the attack remains unconfirmed.

Prior to attending Killian this year, the senior attended USA Charter and Keys Gate High and has filed a lawsuit against the school following claims of rape against two football players. The suit states the school did not work effectively to prevent the rape or investigate the incident.

A judge has ruled that the suspect should remain in juvenile detention jail for 21 days while prosecutors decide whether to charge her as a minor or an adult.

To provide insight regarding the school environment surrounding this attack, Killian sophomore Sydney Howard agreed to speak with The Panther.

When the incident occurred where were you?

I was in my 4th period – which was virtual school – and since I am in iPrep we have breakout rooms, so I was in a room with 7 of my friends when they came on the PA and said everyone had to go into a classroom now.

How is the school responding?

Honestly, I think the best thing that has come out of this situation is the fact that we pulled together as a family and it just made the whole school closer. A lot of people used the opportunity to bash our school, talk about how “ghetto” it is, and how nobody should want to go to Killian. But seriously, I love going here and I love how [on social media], especially when people tried to talk bad about us, we all came together as a school to protect ourselves. But most importantly we protected DeAndre. We are proud of where we go and we are a family.

Did you know the victim?

I did not know Dre but I have a lot of friends who are on the football team and they were close with him, so when the incident happened I was getting a lot of information from them.

Are you nervous about returning to school in light of this situation?

I am far from being nervous about going to school. I went to my sister’s softball game [Tuesday night] and I wore my Killian shirt with pride because I love where I go to school and there is nothing wrong with it. Killian has existed for about 50 years and in all of its history there has never been any issues of this sort. Our administrators and security guards were amazing on