Following a stabbing incident at Black Hawk Middle School in Warrenton on Thursday morning, Nov. 12, that left two people seriously injured, various officials shared their thoughts on the shocking events earlier in the day, including at the Warren County R-III School Board meeting.
“First and foremost, I think all our hearts are broken after what’s happened today,” Board President Jeff Schneider said.
“I appreciate all the support of the community, especially our law enforcement workers and our first responders who were quick to respond to the events at our middle school today,” he added.
“I realize that we’re all heartbroken and shook up and that is part of the reason that we decided to truncate our meeting tonight to allow our families, board members and especially our superintendent, who has been busy all day long, to go home and get some rest.”
Board member Franci Schwartz also commented on the incident.
“I want to give a shout-out to, besides the law enforcement staff, who were phenomenal, to the staff,” Schwartz said. “The staff of the building did a great job. The parents were cooperative and I was proud of how everybody handled it. I was there all morning. … We appreciate everybody that was there for the kids.”
Superintendent Dr. Gregg Klinginsmith also released a statement about the incident:
“Our hearts are broken. It's a terrible incident, and we wish it never would have happened. But we're really thankful for the law enforcement's quick action. As soon as this occurred, they had the suspect in custody within a minute. I couldn't be more proud of the work that they did. I appreciate our law enforcement tremendously. And then also our staff. We had our nurses, who were outstanding. Our teachers did a great job keeping kids safe and calm. I couldn't be more thrilled for our teaching staff and how they handled such a really terrible situation," he said.
"Tomorrow there's no school at Blackhawk Middle School. We're going to have school in session for everyone else, but the focus is going to be on healing and recovery. In the middle school, we're going to try to have counseling. We're still working on a location for parents to bring kids to have counseling tomorrow and also a place for the kids to gather tomorrow just to see their peers and give each other hugs.”
The school district later announced that a public safety meeting will be held Monday, Nov. 16, at 6:30 p.m. in the Black Hawk Middle School commons.
“The focus of this meeting is to discuss what safety improvements we would like to see for Black Hawk Middle School. I am sure the conversation will turn towards what can be done district wide. Parents from all schools are welcome to attend,” Klinginsmith said in a message to families.
“This will be a collaborative discussion. We will work together to come up with ideas that we feel are best for our school community,” he added.
“Myself and the board are also collaborating with the Center for Education Safety. The school board is meeting on Thursday to continue discussing school safety. This discussion will occur in closed session as we don’t want bad actors to learn our safety protocols. I hope to take feedback from the parent meeting to the board of education. From there, we can start moving forward with what we feel are important safety improvements for BHMS and the district as a whole.”
In addition to the school board meeting, the middle school stabbing incident also came up at Thursday’s Truesdale Board of Aldermen meeting.
Mayor Jerry Cannon thanked everyone involved in the response to the incident, saying they did a fantastic job.
“Even though some people were hurt, and it’s bad, it could have been worse,” he said, adding that he had been told that the teacher and student who were seriously injured were both going to be OK.
“And there were some heroes that came out of that,” Cannon added, “especially a young man who, I won’t name names, but a certain young man did a whole lot toward helping that situation, probably at risk to himself when he did so.”
Truesdale Police Chief Casey Doyle said there were no significant issues caused by parents, many of whom had to wait for hours outside the school to be reunited with their children.
“I think everybody stayed where we asked them to and went along with the process as we moved through it,” he said.
At the Wright City Board of Aldermen meeting, also held Thursday, Mayor Michelle Heiliger weighed in on the incident as well.
“You know, Wright City is a special place, and right now is one of the best opportunities that we have to prove that in our support of Warrenton. What happened in their community is something we pray never happens anywhere, but it’s really close to home,” Heiliger said.
“The best thing we can do is provide support,” she added.
