Students question safety

Students at a north-end Catholic school say they’re not surprised about a violent attack Tuesday that saw a 17-year-old stabbed and robbed of a portable electronic game.
The victim was hospitalized, but the wounds were not life-threatening. Students say there has been a rash of fights seen in and around school grounds at Archbishop O’Leary high in recent weeks, and some are concerned about safety at the school.
“There are a lot of fights that happen here,” said 17-year-old Jamie Cabral in Grade 12 at O’Leary.
“Going to school here doesn’t bother me, but there have been quite a lot of fighting between different people at the school.”
A 17-year-old who turned himself in to police Tuesday was charged in connection with the attack near the school. Police are looking for three other suspects, including one who police believe stabbed the teen. None of the suspects attended O’Leary.
“We have 1,500 students in that school, part of it is you have a large population of teenagers, and of course we have teenagers arguing with other students,” said Lori Nagy, a spokeswoman with the Edmonton Catholic School Board.
“They are all aware that they will be dealt with very seriously if they are involved in any type of incident.”
Parents were given a letter that said only that there was an incident involving a 17-year-old jumped by unknown assailants. With the short notice between the attack and the letters needing to go out, staff wasn’t able to fully inform parents about the stabbing, the school board said.
–jeff.cummings@metronews.ca