Knife may have been used during Aiken High brawl, district says

AIKEN, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - In a reversal, Aiken County Public Schools says a knife may have caused injuries during a brawl last week at Aiken High School.

Authorities previously said the knife was found during the investigation of Thursday’s brawl but it wasn’t believed to have been used.

In a message posted over the weekend on the district’s website, Superintendent King Laurence expressed concern about the brawl.

“In addition, we also wanted to share a possible error in the information which was available to us and shared Thursday. We have since learned that the knife recovered in the vicinity of the situation may have been involved in injuries sustained by at least one of the students,” Laurence wrote.

Police had said last week the knife wasn’t used.

BY THE NUMBERS:

• The brawl on Thursday may have affected attendance of Friday. The district said 815 students were present on Friday at the school that has an enrollment of 1,217. For the sake of comparison, attendance Thursday was 994.

However, the Aiken Department of Public Safety on Monday revised that.

A suffered an injury to his right thigh, the agency said:

“After reviewing medical documents and evaluating the injury, it is possible that the juvenile may have been struck by a knife or other sharp instrument. Investigators are still working to determine how the injury occurred.”

Two photos sent to News 12 show what looks like a jackknife on the floor. They were sent by different people and from different angles, and it’s unknown whether it’s the same knife police say they found.

Despite persistent rumors that a gun was pulled during the brawl, the Aiken Department of Public Safety said last week that officers have found no evidence of a gun being involved or shots being fired.

“The interviews we’ve done, nobody has told us they saw a gun. We haven’t found a gun. We haven’t found anybody that tells us, ‘I’ve seen a gun,’” Aiken Department of Public Safety Capt. Marty Sawyer said Friday.

SEE VIDEO FROM THE SCENE:

Much of the superintendent’s message on the website seemed to address concerns that parents weren’t notified sooner.

“There were a number of factors that delayed Thursday’s initial notification to parents, and we regret not having been able to send an initial notification with greater speed. The details that we would want to include in an initial message are often not yet available during an active situation. We are exploring implementation of a more generalized initial communications notifying parents/guardians of an issue, without specifics, and requesting simply their patience as we work hand-in-hand with law enforcement to ensure the safety of students and staff,” he wrote.

Even if parents weren’t notified by the district, rumors spread like wildfire on social media, and many parents showed up at the school to check on their children, but they weren’t able to get in because the school was on soft lockdown.

Video from the scene showed someone being wheeled away on a stretcher behind parents who were massed at the entrance.

“We recognize that notifying more than 1,000 students’ parent/guardian about such an issue without specifics would also require that we ask that they refrain from entering the campus until further notice. Allocating resources to manage a crowd of worried parents/guardians that would undoubtedly gather after receipt of such message would detract from our active response to the ongoing situation and ability to protect the safety of our students and staff,” Laurence wrote in the message.

“Please be assured that notification was made Thursday as soon as is it was feasibly possible once it was safe and responsible to do so.”

As of Friday, six students had been arrested. Police said Monday that four additional students had been identified as being involved and would be changed with misdemeanor affray and released into the custody of their guardians.

The altercation began in the cafeteria and spilled outside, according to authorities.

In his message, Laurence said: “There were multiple altercations on Aiken High School’s campus, and law enforcement and s are actively reviewing footage of those incidents as part of the ongoing investigation.”

Asked if the district plans to install metal detectors, a spokeswoman for the district said: “We utilize weapons detectors throughout our district.”

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