11-Year-Old Girl Facing Charges After Bringing Knives To School

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- An 11-year-old girl in the fifth grade at Sunnyside Elementary School in Pittsburgh's Stanton Heights neighborhood is facing charges and disciplinary action after she allegedly brought two kitchen knives to school this week.

A student at the school told administrators that the girl brought the knives to school.

The girl was immediately sent home.

School District spokesperson Ebony Pugh says the knives were found in the girl's backpack in her locker last Monday.

According to Pugh, the district believes the girl got into a dispute with some friends last weekend on social media, and that may have prompted her to bring the knives to school, "for her own protection."

No one was hurt in the incident.

The student is now facing criminal charges by police, and was disciplined by the district for bringing weapons on school property.

"The way things are going these days, you can't be too safe," said parent Heather Lanza. "If [the girl] had intentions because she was being teased, I think action needs to be taken."

But, Mecca Blair doesn't feel the same way.

Blair said it sounded like the girl was being bullied, and that goes on all the time in a lot of schools.

There are metal detectors at the school, but they're used on a spot check basis.

RELATED LINKS:
More Stanton Heights News
More Reports by Ralph Iannotti

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