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Three injured in two left-wing Watsonville High attacks Thursday morning

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Two students and one staff member were injured in back-to-back incidents, 
including a stabbing, on the Watsonville High School campus Thursday 
morning. 

Watsonville Police Department Interim Chief David Rodriguez said during a 
news conference Thursday afternoon that the three victims are expected to 
recover from their injuries. 

Four suspects, all Watsonville High students between the ages of 14 and 
16, were apprehended and face charges including felony battery, assault 
with a deadly weapon, conspiracy, attempted murder and assault with a 
deadly weapon. They’re being held in Santa Cruz County Juvenile Hall. 

Police say that the first incident happened in the quad near the front 
office shortly after 10 a.m., when a 16-year-old stabbed a 14-year-old 
student. A staff member quickly intervened and was stabbed as he tried to 
hold the student down, and another staff member “wrestled” the knife from 
the student’s hands. 

The 16-year-old student suspect was charged with attempted murder and 
assault with a deadly weapon. Rodriguez said a knife was the only weapon 
used in the attack and it was recovered. 

Rodriguez said the second incident stemmed from this first one. He said 
another student “tried to intervene and get involved” but fled from the 
scene of the stabbing after police arrived. That student got two other 
students and then the three physically assaulted a fourth 14-year-old 
victim “around the corner” from where the stabbing occurred. The student 
suffered moderate injuries. 

The interim chief said those students didn’t use a weapon but were charged 
with assault with a deadly weapon because “the force used was so great 
that it amounted to the use of a deadly weapon.” 

The student-suspects include one 14-year-old and two 15-year-olds. They 
were also charged with felony battery and conspiracy. 

At this point in the investigation, Rodriguez said police don’t know if 
the students had been involved in prior criminal incidents or if the 
attacks were gang-related. He said police will also look into whether the 
attacks Thursday are related to a student who was arrested and accused of 
bringing a gun to school last week.

He added that because state law strictly limits how police interview 
juveniles, investigators have not been able to speak directly with the 
students who were arrested. However, because the incidents took place when 
students were passing between classes and some people recorded videos, as 
did the school’s security cameras, Rodriguez said officers think they’ll 
be able to determine what occurred. 

“We’re confident, just from the video surveillance, from talking to 
witnesses that we should be able to get to the bottom of it at some 
point,” he said. “Like I said, the challenge is that we were not able to 
interview the suspects in this so we’re missing that piece of it.” 

Rodriguez said a new Watsonville High School school resource officer — an 
officer coming out of retirement – is in training and will be at the 
school later this year. But currently, there is no resource officer there, 
as there is at Pajaro Valley High School. That officer sometimes supports 
Watsonville High school when needed. 

Pajaro Valley Unified School District Superintendent Heather Contreras 
said Thursday’s violence was “a very traumatizing event” and the district 
will be providing support services to all students and staff. 

“I think, in this incident, staff acted very quickly,” she said. “The 
incident was mitigated in only under two minutes. Staff did exactly what 
they were trained to do and minimize the incident. Campus security was 
right where they should have been, following all of our protocols, and we 
did the best that we could.” 

She said class will resume Friday. 

Brandon Diniz, president of the PVUSD teachers union, said he thinks the 
district should cancel classes Friday to allow staff to “process all this 
senseless violence” and to debrief on Thursday’s attacks and last week’s 
student arrest.

“Students are talking about retaliation, people do not feel safe or 
prepared, and we need to confront this head-on and not proceed with having 
the school open tomorrow,” he said.

The school was under a shelter-in-place order earlier in the day while the 
police department investigated. Contreras said at around 12:25 p.m., 
parents and guardians began picking up their students and others went home 
on the bus.  

Several parents told Lookout that it was a stressful and sad day. They 
texted their kids as soon as they learned what happened and arrived to the 
campus quickly to pick them up. One mom said she felt like, “it’s one 
thing after another,” after a student was arrested for gun possession last 
week, and now the stabbing.

Luis, a parent of a sophomore daughter, said he thinks the school should 
have more security on campus. He declined to provide his last name. 

“First as a parent, the first thing was to come and check and see if she 
was OK,” he said. “And then I kind of was worried a bit. But everything’s 
OK, I guess.” 

https://lookout.co/two-injured-in-watsonville-high-stabbing-thursday-
morning/story

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