Police combat increase in instances of teen violence across D.C., Maryland and Virginia
(FOX 5 DC) - There have been multiple incidents of violence involving teens across D.C., Maryland and Virginia within the last week.
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Wednesday morning two students at Annapolis High School were stabbed during a fight that broke out.
Seven students face multiple charges including trespassing, having deadly weapon on school campus, second-degree assault, affray, disorderly conduct, and disrupting school activities.
In Loudoun County, a video circulating on social media shows a fight between a student and teacher at Woodgrove High School.
Officials say the altercation is under investigation and the teacher was put on paid administrative leave.
In Prince George’s County, police are still searching for the teens who were seen on video fighting and vandalizing cars in the area.
Meanwhile, the Tik Tok challenge "Devious Licks" continues to cause problems for schools in the DMV area, the principal of Osbourn Park High School in Manassas said they had to shut down some of its bathrooms after students trashed several boy’s restrooms as part of the challenge.
Given the recent incidents involving the area's youth, some on social media have called for more police in schools, especially after the knife fight at Annapolis High School Wednesday, where school resource officers were able to disarm the student who had a knife.
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Alix Swann with Sunrise Silver Spring, a group that recently rallied this summer in opposition to school resource officers in Montgomery County, advocates for less police presence in schools.
"I don’t think that we should just totally not have any response teams at schools but what I do think is we don’t need armed police officers." Swann said. "I really do think these issues are indicative of other things going on."
Swann says instead of students being arrested; she’d like to see schools get to the root cause of the issues.
She said she believes having on campus security could help in situations like disarming a fight, but for change to happen she believes it starts with a change in mindset and bringing in more resources to school buildings students can access.
"So licensed clinical social workers who students can talk to, more than one school psychologist at every couple of buildings," Swann said. "And then hopefully the school system will be able to build upon this and then we’ll see less violence, less crime, less students acting out when they know that they are being safe and belong in a school system and that everything that they need is there for them."