Teacher’s Aide Stabbed Across From Campus

Three men, possibly gang members, beat and stabbed a teacher’s aide Thursday in a parking lot across from Columbus Middle School, authorities said.

“They totally hit her by surprise,” said Socorro Serrano, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Unified School District. “It seems she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Students were in class when the attack occurred, and there are no known witnesses, authorities said.

The 41-year-old woman, whose identity was not immediately made public, was treated for a stab wound to her stomach and other injuries at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where she was in stable condition Thursday afternoon and expected to be released. She teaches special-education classes at the school on Elkwood Avenue.

The woman was carrying a purse, but her assailants did not attempt to take it during the attack.

“We’re sort of at a loss for motive,” said Det. Rick Swanston of the LAPD’s West Valley Division. “She said she has no idea who would do this or why.”

Swanston said the men mumbled some words in Spanish after the attack but that the woman, who does not speak Spanish, did not understand what was said.

Swanston said the assailants were young men with shaved heads who may have been gang members. He said the woman did not usually park in the lot where the attack occurred and that investigators had left open the possibility that she was the victim of mistaken identity.

Serrano, the school spokeswoman, said other school lots are locked, but the lot in which the teacher’s aide was attacked is unlocked during the day because it is shared with the nearby Boys & Girls Club.

She said the single school police patrol car assigned to Columbus and 11 and other schools was not in the area when the attack occurred. The number of patrol cars assigned to a given area is based on the number of criminal incidents in that area the previous year, and the West Valley is among the safest areas in the city, Serrano said.

Nonetheless, she said the patrol car would pay particular attention to the Columbus campus over the next few days. Serrano said school officials also planned to meet with representatives of the Boys & Girls Club to discuss parking lot security.

Alarmed by the attack, several parents picked up their children early. Some of the students cried and embraced their mothers as they left school.

Liliana del Real came for her daughter, 12-year-old Esperanza, after hearing about the stabbing on the radio.

“I just heard that it was a female and I thought it could have been my daughter,” Del Real said. “I came right away. I’m very upset about this.”

Esperanza added: “I’m very nervous. A lot of students are very nervous too.”

As reporters descended on the school, school staffers with portable radios shielded students from questions during passing periods between classes.

One teacher, who asked that his name not be used, said: “I’ve taught here 27 years and I’ve always felt very safe. I never imagined anything like this would ever happen. Not here.”