Extra security measures in place after Banneker High stabbing, superintendent says

SOUTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fulton County Schools say the district is taking immediate actions after a stabbing inside one of its high schools.

Two students were injured and three students were taken into custody after Wednesday morning’s stabbing at Benjamin Banneker High School.

Superintendent Mike Looney says the school will be on “restrictive movement” Thursday and Friday.

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“Let me make it clear, we will not tolerate violence in our schools,” Looney said in a statement. “Unfortunately, sometimes students still make poor choices in how they resolve peer-to-peer conflict and turn to violence. That is no excuse; every student deserves a safe school environment focused on learning.”

Looney said he is also going to seek emergency authorization to hire 10 more security staff to monitor security systems and help school police and administrators react to situations quickly.

“Fulton County Schools has invested in significant security measures and is prepared to commit additional resources toward the security of our schools. However, we all have a role —staff, students, and parents – to play in keeping our schools safe. I am currently working on additional measures to address the increase in violence at some schools and will update the community in the coming weeks.”

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Students described the chaos and shared cell phone videos of the scene Wednesday at Banneker High School.

“My teacher stepped into the hallway. When she came back, she said someone had been stabbed. An announcement came on, and said we had to go into a soft lockdown, and then it went to a hard lockdown,” Malek Ware told Channel 2 Action News.

“I saw a lot of blood though. There was like trails of blood on the walls on the floors.”

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The campus was locked down and frantic parents rushed to the school after getting texts from their kids about the stabbing.

‘What’s going through my mind is letting that child out of that classroom...,” mother Shonquil Richardson said.

School officials haven’t said what objects were used in the stabbings or what charges the three students taken into custody are facing.

2 Students injured in stabbing incident at Banneker High School

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