Girls’ wrestling coach talks ‘down’ 14-year-old armed with knife, Iowa school says
A middle school wrestling coach is being commended for defusing a situation involving a 14-year-old armed with a knife who was assaulting students in the cafeteria, Iowa police and school officials said.
Officers responded just after 7:30 a.m. Nov. 20 to Pella Middle School to find the teen had “used a knife to assault multiple students,” leaving two with “minor laceration-type injuries.” according to a Facebook post from the Pella Police Department.
Police said the two injured students did not require medical transport.
According to authorities, the staff’s “quick action” helped keep students safe and allowed authorities to secure the scene within two minutes.
One of those staff members was a special education teacher and middle school girls’ wrestling coach, Pella schools Superintendent Greg Ebeling said in a news conference shared by KCCI.
Ebeling said the teacher “really talked” the student “down” and got him to move outside. Ebeling declined to give the coach’s name to protect her privacy.
“That ended about as good as it possibly could without having to physically subdue someone,” Ebeling said.
The 14-year-old was taken into custody, and charges are pending, police said. The investigation is ongoing, and no motive for the assault has been released.
The same student assaulted a school counselor in February and was charged with assault causing bodily injury, Pella Police Chief Shane McSheehy said in the news conference.
Pella is about a 45-mile drive southeast from Des Moines.
