OXNARD : Boy, 16, Arrested in Stabbing on Campus

A fight between two suspected gang rivals Tuesday outside a class at Channel Islands High School ended with the arrest of a 16-year-old student after the stabbing of a 14-year-old classmate, authorities said.

The incident occurred at 11 a.m. during a break between classes at the south Oxnard school and happened within sight of an administrator, said Principal Ken Benefield.

The two ninth-graders involved in the altercation were among five or six students talking outside a classroom, Benefield said.

The group was a short distance away from Assistant Principal Rafael Gonzalez, who said he did not notice anything wrong until he observed that the shirt of one of the students was bloody, Benefield said.

“There obviously wasn’t a big fight,” Benefield said. “He just gave him a jolt with a knife.”

The 16-year-old, whose name was not released because of his age, then walked into his class “as if nothing had taken place,” said Oxnard Police Officer Ken Tougas.

School officials detained him until police arrived.

The injured student, whose identity was also withheld, received first aid at the school for a knife wound to his left side. He was later transported to St. John’s Regional Medical Center for treatment.

The suspect was booked at Juvenile Hall on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, Tougas said.

District policy requires school officials to recommend to the school board the expulsion of any student found to have a weapon on campus, Benefield said.