GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — Editor's Note: The video above first aired on Nov. 21, 2022.
A building within the Robbinsdale School District was briefly placed in lockdown Thursday following an incident where a student was stabbed outside.
The Hennepin County Sheriff's Office says deputies responded to Sandburg Middle School in Golden Valley shortly before noon on reports a student had been stabbed with an unknown object. Deputies soon learned that an altercation between two girls in the Highview alternative program, which is housed inside the Sandburg building, spilled outside into a nearby cul-du-sac and a 17-year-old was stabbed.
A sheriff's spokesperson says a knife was found on a 15-year-old girl, who was taken into custody and transported to the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center on pending charges of second-degree assault.
Robbinsdale district officials sent a message home to families alerting them of what occurred, saying Highview was placed into lockdown for about 15 minutes. Principal Robert Ware emphasized that while Sandburg Middle School shares a campus/building with Highview, the two programs are separated by securely locked doorways and "at no time was there a threat to Sandburg."
This incident is still being investigated by both school staff and law enforcement.
The Robbinsdale Public School District has wrestled with issues of security and weapons on campus in recent months. In November of 2022 a video surfaced of students with a gun in a bathroom at Sandburg. District leaders were roundly criticized for what police and parents called a delay in communicating what had happened.
"I'm horrified," one Sandburg parent told KARE 11 in November. "I'm absolutely horrified. You want to send your children to school and the assumption is they're going to be safe."
Two students were eventually charged in that incident, and the district updated its weapons response policy.
Around the same time period the principal of Robbinsdale Middle School sent a message to parents about a student bringing a firearm to school and showing it to classmates.
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