Youth Accused of Stabbing Teacher Remains in Custody

A Sylmar Juvenile Court referee refused to release from custody Thursday a ninth-grader accused of stabbing his English teacher, saying the student had planned the attack, showed the knife to other students and told them what he was going to do.

“Several students had been told that he was going to stab the teacher ahead of time. They didn’t believe him,” said Referee Lloyd Jeffrey Wiatt at an arraignment hearing for the 15-year-old.

Wiatt ordered that the Pacoima youth remain in custody at the Sylmar Juvenile Hall pending trial March 28.

The boy, whose name was not released because he is a minor, has been charged with carrying a knife on a school campus and assault with a deadly weapon in the stabbing of English teacher Cynthia Edwards, 37, who was attacked Monday at Olive Vista Junior High School in Sylmar.

Edwards, of Palmdale, was stabbed in the back when she called the boy to the front of the classroom while she wrote a disciplinary report on him for using profanity. The knife, its 3 1/2-inch blade embedded to the hilt near Edwards’ shoulder, was removed at Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills where the teacher continued her recovery Thursday.

At the arraignment, the slightly built youth denied the assault charge, a move similar to entering a not-guilty plea in criminal court.

Meanwhile Thursday, racial insults between about 20 black and Latino students sparked a lunchtime fight at Olive Vista. A school police officer sprayed several students with Mace to break up the melee, school officials said.

“It was a riot situation,” said history teacher Mike Castillo, who tried to break up the fight. “I got pushed down from behind. They were swinging and kicking but they didn’t hurt me.”

Teachers at the school, who have grown increasingly concerned about campus security, have called for a meeting today with district officials to air their fears, school officials said. A notice offering help by district counselors for teachers suffering from “delayed-reaction syndrome” is posted in the school office.

One teacher, who asked not to be identified, said she and other teachers had received threats from students this week.

Principal Charles C. Welsh said the stabbing has raised tensions on the campus, which had not been troubled by racial fights in the past.

“The school has become stressed,” Welsh said. “Everybody is overreacting, the kids are overreacting and the teachers are overreacting.”

Welsh said he did not know how many students will be suspended because of the incident. He said the district has promised to assign a second school police officer to the campus today.