SANFORD — An 18 year-old Sanford High School student remained in custody at York County Jail late Thursday, charged with aggravated assault in connection with the stabbing of another student earlier in the day.
Mitchell J. Farah, 18, of Acton is held in lieu of $2,500 cash bail, jail corrections staff said.
The incident took place at about 12:30 p.m. Thursday and the school was immediately placed on lockdown until students were dismissed at their regular time of 2 p.m.
Police Chief Thomas Connolly said Farah and the victim, also of Acton, had an ongoing dispute.
“The suspect Farah apparently approached the juvenile victim in a first floor bathroom and stabbed the victim in the chest and back with a small folding knife,” said Connolly in a prepared statement. “The suspect was immediately apprehended by school staff and the School Resource Officer.”
The victim, whose name cannot be released because he is a juvenile, was transported to Goodall Hospital and was in stable condition Thursday night. Connolly said the victim was conscious and alert following the incident.
Superintendent Betsy St. Cyr said the victim was immediately treated in the nurses office near to where the incident took place until rescue crews arrived. Assistant Principal Doug Roberts and School Resource Officer Michael Gordon apprehended Farah within seconds, she said.
The lockdown was put in place as police carried out their investigation. At least five police officers were at the scene.
St. Cyr said the school followed a protocol designed by the Safe Schools, Healthy Students initiative. She was at a meeting in the vocational school section of the high school building when the lockdown announcement came over the intercom.
“The protocol worked well; it was so methodical,” she said.
Word of the lockdown spread quickly as students send text messages to their parents. Sanford School Department Director of Educational Operations David Theoharides said some parents arrived at the school to pick up their children and those students were escorted out of the school building to meet their parents in the parking lot.
Theoharides said a note was sent home to parents. The note gave a brief outline of what had transpired.
“We followed our emergency crisis plan and put the school in lockdown until an investigation could be conducted by the police,” Principal Allan Young wrote, in part.
As well, Theoharides said a message on the school’s instant alert system was to be sent to parents at 3 p.m. Thursday.
Aggravated assault is a Class B felony.
St. Cyr commended Young and the school administrative staff and School Resource Officer Gordon and Sanford Police for their handling of the incident and said she is grateful to the Safe Schools, Healthy Students initiative that wrote the protocol the school followed.
St. Cyr said she cannot recall an incident as significant in the past 15 years.
Sanford High School educates about 1,300 students annually.
“This was a horrible thing, but no other staff or students were at risk,” she said.
— Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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