Typical School Fight Takes a Sharp Twist
Date: 2008-07-06 00:50:59
Source: http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Platt_Micha...
Submitted By: Fight Videos
By all accounts, it was a typical high school fight -- until someone pulled a knife. The result was two teens rushed to surgery with life-threatening stab wounds, one with a punctured lung and the other stabbed in the chest. Both victims required advanced life support after being located near Bishop McNally high school in Calgary's northeast, but they're expected to survive. Police will interview the wounded teens today and charges will follow, once the bloody brawl is sorted out. "It seems there may have been a dispute that was settled with weapons, not fists," said police duty Insp. Keith Cain. Your Ad Here To students at Bishop McNally, the lunch-hour bloodbath on the edge of the schoolyard is a huge drama, and already there is fearful talk of retaliation. Despite assurances from school board officials of student safety, some teens connected to the fight say they won't be at school today, in case friends of the victims seek revenge. "I'll be staying home," said one teen. But high school is a place for hyperbole, and police and witnesses say the reality appears to be a run-of-the-mill fight, but for the blade. Instead of black eyes and bruises, there's a torn lung, and the potential for serious charges. Those who watched say the altercation started like countless high school scraps before it -- one group of teens exchanged a few nasty remarks with another, and punches were thrown. Witnesses say one Grade 10 student was the main target of the other group, and he received the worst of it at first. Allegedly, that teen, aged 15 or 16, pulled a knife as three older boys were beating him up. "I'd call it self-defence," said one female student, who asked not to be named. She said he returned to school following the fight, his mouth full of blood after being punched. A few minutes after the brawl, police were swarming the northwest corner of the Bishop McNally playing field -- the actual crime scene is just outside school boundaries -- where they found one victim bleeding profusely from the chest. Officers found another victim about four blocks from the fight scene, also seriously stabbed in the chest, and he was also taken to hospital. No charges have been laid, and Insp. Cain says the wounded teens will be interviewed to determine what happened. Friends of the younger boy, a student at the school, say he was walking with some pals to a nearby convenience store when the older teens -- allegedly led by an 18-year-old expelled from McNally last year -- starting taunting him. He made some comments in return, and a fight broke out. "There were three guys on him," said Grade 12 student Adam Benito, who said the teen facing charges is like family to him. "I'm shaken up -- he's my brother, and I don't want to see this happen to him." Staring at the taped-off crime scene, which a police dog and handler was scouring for evidence, Benito said his friend was never violent, and he'd never seen him with a weapon. Another teen bystander said McNally isn't a school where weapons are common, but he said som e teens do carry knives for self-defence. That a school brawl would result in potentially fatal knife wounds isn't that surprising. While gun crimes have remained stable over the past decade, recent statistics show knives are now the weapon of choice in Canada: In 2006, out of 210 homicides, one-third involved knives. As well, a recent Facebook survey of more than 600 people -- many teens -- showed more than half packed a knife. The survey, conducted by Nathan Mapp, an anti-knife crusader from Manitoba, showed many teens feel they need a knife for protection. With knives so common, ordinary high school fist-fights can easily turn tragic. Calgary Catholic School Board spokeswoman Tanya Younker said the separate school system has rules against weapons, but there's no certainty about what students may be carrying in their pockets or backpacks. Without metal detectors or searches, Younker says the best way to ensure students aren't armed is to make them understand the potential consequences of knives. "We rely on parents to help us out with that, and to speak to their children," she said. Next story: Vegemite notwithstanding, Aussies do have some ideas Albertans could embrace. Namely, the mandatory-voting law
