DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. – Broward County deputies responded to a Deerfield Beach school Tuesday morning after they said a student cut a teacher.
It was reported around 9 a.m. at the Bright Horizons School, located at 3901 NE First Terrace, across from Broward Health North.
“The preliminary investigation reveals that a juvenile male student cut a teacher with an object,” Broward Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Carey Codd said.
Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue medics took the teacher to Broward Health North with injuries “not expected to be life-threatening,” Codd said.
Codd said staff members detained the 14-year-old boy and deputies later arrested him on a charge of attempted felony murder. Authorities said the teen, who is described as 6-foot tall and weighing 300 lbs., was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center.
Bright Horizons is part of the Broward County school system. According to a 2016 Broward County Public Schools report, the school, which enrolls about 150 students, serves students who are “classified as Intellectually Disabled, Autistic, Physically Impaired, Other Health Impaired and experience global delays.”
It’s one of two “Special Day Schools” in the district that serve intellectually disabled students.
Broward teachers’ union president Anna Fusco said the student chased the teacher out of the classroom and through the halls with scissors reportedly striking her in the ear.
“The child could have very well easily stabbed her in her face and caused even more trauma and damage physically and social and emotional pieces,” Fusco said.
Fusco said she’s outraged over what happened.
“We’ve had kids bring guns on campus. We’re having weapons, stabbings, objects being thrown,” she said. “I don’t know any other careers other than maybe police that they’re walking into the line of violence where teachers are working with children and we’re being violently attacked.”
Authorities placed the school on a secured status following the stabbing, however the all clear has since been given.
Codd said BSO’s Threat Management Unit was investigating.
A spokesperson for the school district later confirmed that the student is in ninth grade and was detained after the incident.
“No other students or staff where involved in the incident,” the spokesperson said in an email to Local 10 News. “The school’s administration is cooperating fully with the investigation.”