Teen stabbed by another student at West Potomac High School reportedly in stable condition

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. - A Fairfax County public school teen seen on video with a knife during a fight in school Wednesday has been charged with malicious wounding and is being held at the county's juvenile detention center.  

The student who was stabbed inside West Potomac High School is in stable condition. 

The Fairfax County School Board has a regularly scheduled meeting for Thursday and there’s no doubt that the Wednesday stabbing will be discussed.

There are lots of questions about the student who brought a knife to school and used it — namely, why didn't any adult step in and try to break up the fight before the teen got stabbed? 

READ MORE: 15-year-old charged with West Potomac HS stabbing

Viral video:

Video of the fight that ended with the stabbing has been all over social media. Officials say the fight broke out around 9:40 a.m.

**WARNING, SOME VIEWERS MAY FIND THIS VIDEO DISTURBING**
 

The 15-year-old with the knife was first seen on the ground getting punched by the 16-year-old, who ended up getting stabbed. Another video played all over social media shows the 16-year-old on the floor and bleeding.  

Fellow students were taking video but nobody helped the student bleeding out. At one point you see a man — clearly a staff member at the school — just casually walk away. But Fairfax County Schools Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid told FOX 5 she's satisfied with how this incident was handled.

"We actually had staff sprinting to the situation as soon as they were made of aware of it and one of our staff, as you may have heard, actually corralled the assailant and another two staff actually administered first aid immediately prior to the emergency vehicle arriving, so we feel like there was staff that really responded quickly, swiftly, accurately, and likely saved the life of this young man," Reid said. 

Student perspective:

One West Potomac High School student we spoke to today says she's not happy at all about what went down at school Monday.

"We all just thought that it was just a normal fight because fights happen all the time at West Potomac. There was a fight on Monday and nobody really knew that it was going to escalate to that and I don't think anybody would think that a kid would have a knife with him," West Potomac High School student Linnea Riddle said. 

"And metal detectors don't do anything, especially if they're not going to keep them up throughout the whole day when students are still going through the doors.  I think it's just really wrong because metal detectors aren't going to make feel anybody feel safe because being in that school like it's still trauma and there's kids who saw that. There were kids throwing up, kids fainting from all the blood. It was really just a disgusting situation," she continued. 

We're told there was a weapons detection system in place at the start of the school day at West Potomac High Thursday morning but not there later in the day. 

Superintendent Reid also provided some additional information about the boys involved in the fight. 

"So these were young boys, right.  The assailant was 15 years old and the victim was 16 years old and all of those topics are currently under investigation," Reid said.  So we can't talk about prior discipline at this time or whether the student was a different school and transferred to West Potomac? I'm not at liberty to discuss that at this time."

Parents angered:

Parents say they received a notice 45 minutes after the stabbing incident at the school. 

They say that the alert was a "Stay Put, Stay Tuned" alert and that, under Fairfax County Public Schools policy, it is supposed to allow parents to pick up their children as long as they present identification. But the school did not allow parents to pick up their children. 

Parent Bill Beil told FOX 5 DC he was "denied access." 

"Everything is unsatisfactory, from the alert that goes out to parents that’s stay put, stay tuned. Under that alert with appropriate ID we can check out our children. This is a lockdown. Under a lockdown you can’t get access and the answers Dr. Reid gave were appalling," said Beil. 

The school district says parents were initially denied access due to the ongoing police and school investigation. 

What's next:

Reid says the school system is working to comply with Governor Glenn Youngkin's executive order banning students from having cell phones during the school day but is also glad students and parents were able to connect via their cell phones during Wednesday's incident.