DeKalb County

Grandmother says 11-year-old granddaughter was stabbed in the hand at DeKalb school

NOW PLAYING ABOVE

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A DeKalb County grandmother said a kid stabbed her granddaughter in the hand with a fork at school, and she wants the school district to do more.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Twanda Wesley said her 11-year-old granddaughter is now going to school in fear after an encounter during lunch at the DeKalb Arts Academy last Tuesday.

“She said this little boy who’s always bullying her and her other two friends, got into an argument with another girl, but he came and stabbed her in the hand with a fork,” Wesley said.

DeKalb County Schools released the following statement to Channel 2 Action News:

The safety and well-being of students, families, and staff is the top priority at the DeKalb Arts Academy. Last week, school administrators received a report that a student poked another with a fork and made inappropriate comments during a lunch-period exchange.

There were no visible or reported injuries associated with this incident. While the District cannot publicly discuss individual student discipline matters, an investigation determined this was an isolated event.

The school is continuing to work with the families regarding this incident.

However, the grandmother said it was not an isolated incident.

“She said this has been going on for a while, him telling her and her friends that he was going to kill them,” Wesley said.

Wesley said in the current climate, she doesn’t want to see the school minimize this action because she said children’s lives could be at risk.

“He’s 11, but he knows better,” Wesley said. “He knows right from wrong, all this stuff going on at the schools.”

TRENDING STORIES:

Channel 2′s Eryn Rogers looked into what the DeKalb County School District considers a weapon in its Code of Student Conduct.

In addition to a gun, which carries an automatic one-year suspension, weapons include knives, razor blades and box cutters, chains, pipes, martial arts devices, mace, ammunition, and BB and pellet guns, but it doesn’t mention forks.

However, the punishment for making threats ranges from in-school suspension to a 10-day out-of-school suspension which the grandmother said does little to help her granddaughter feel safe again.

“She shouldn’t have to go to school in fear,” Wesley said. “She’s going to school to learn.”

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

Wesley said the school only suspended the student for a couple of days. Wesley says her granddaughter told her, the boy was back at school Tuesday. She doesn’t believe that’s an adequate punishment.

“Children don’t go to school, taking weapons to school, stabbing other children with them, threatening to kill them, that’s not normal behavior,” Wesley said.

The district said they can’t comment on disciplinary action.

However, Wesley said the school resource officer told her that they would not be pressing charges, so Wesley plans to press charges with the DeKalb County Juvenile Court.

0