15-year-old stabbed inside Brooklyn High School by another student

A 15-year-old was stabbed inside a Brooklyn high school by another student on Tuesday morning, a police spokesperson said.

At approximately 9:20 a.m. police officers responded to a 911 call at Edward R. Murrow High School in Midwood. They found the student with a stab wound in his abdomen. He was transported to nearby Maimonides Medical Center in stable condition, an NYPD spokesperson said.

Police on Tuesday arrested another 15-year-old boy suspected of having stabbed the teen in a hallway on the third floor of the school before running off the premises, according to NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard.

“They got into a dispute,” Sheppard told Gothamist, adding that police had identified the second boy.

Anya Darby, 13, saw her 15-year-old classmate clutch his bleeding stomach on Tuesday morning, according to her mother Auyanna Darby. The student texted her mother throughout the day while locked inside a classroom.

The elder Darby stood outside the school on Tuesday afternoon alongside a crowd of roughly 60 parents who were pleading with police and school officials to let their kids out. Some parents had been waiting since 10 a.m.

“I’m feeling frustrated … I don’t even know what’s going on,” Auyanna Darby told Gothamist.

Department of Education spokesperson Jenna Lyle confirmed that the school was placed on lockdown. Students were dismissed shortly before 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

“The safety and wellbeing of our students is our absolute top priority,” Lyle said.

Several parents told Gothamist that their kids had been locked inside their classrooms since Tuesday morning without food, but said school officials had assured them their kids had been fed.

A Gothamist reporter observed police officials telling parents that everyone inside was safe, and that authorities were “scanning” each student individually prior to letting them go in order to ensure they weren't carrying any weapons.

About 3,900 school safety agents, who are employed by the NYPD but do not carry guns, are assigned to the city’s schools. City budget cuts have eliminated roughly 20% of these positions since the pandemic hit, according to a March report from the city’s Independent Budget Office.

Seven agents are assigned to Murrow, which has more than 3,600 students, according to state data. Fights occur outside the school at least three times a week, according to Hank Sheinkopf, a spokesperson for Teamsters Local 237, the union that represents the agents.

Agents reported 20 incidents at the high school from January through September this year, police data shows. Last year, agents responded to 37 incidents at the school between October and December.

In 2017, a 15-year-old was stabbed to death during his third period history class at a Bronx school. Last month, a second-grader in Queens brought a knife to school, allegedly to attack another student. After a persistent campaign from concerned parents, the school’s principal announced her resignation last week.

This story has been updated with additional information.