Tuesday afternoon Tracey Wise’s daughter, a 15-year-old sophomore at La Plata High School, came directly home after dismissal instead of attending cheerleading practice. Mrs. Wise was immediately suspicious that something was wrong. Her daughter normally loves cheerleading practice.
When the mother began to question her daughter, the teenager broke down in tears. A classmate had stabbed her with what turned out to be a large tapestry needle. The girl lifted her shirt on the side to reveal a small puncture wound, angry-red and slightly swollen.
The teen told her mother that she had been leaning in the doorway of a classroom talking to a teacher when she felt a sharp pain. She yelled out and blamed a friend standing near-by. That boy didn’t do it and identified the person who had, to both Wise and the teacher. He also explained that the perpetrator had taken off running down the hall. The young Wise found out later that another friend had also been stabbed.
In class together a little later, Wise asked her attacker what the girl had used to poke her. The girl presented a very large sewing-style needle. However, it didn’t look like any sewing needle Wise had ever seen.
“She pulled it out of her purse, it was a huge needle,” Wise told The Bay Net. “I told her, I can’t believe you stabbed me with that.”
Tracey Wise said she waited until 8 p.m. that evening for the school to contact her about the incident. When it became apparent that no communication from either La Plata High School or Charles County Public Schools administration, she then phoned a friend in the Charles County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) who helped her get in touch with the appropriate CCSO contact for her concerns.
“The only people who have been any help in all of this [are] Officer Callaway and Officer Kaylor,” Tracey Wise told The Bay Net.
According to Tracey Wise, her daughter stayed home Wednesday to take pain medication, ice the wound and recuperate emotionally. Her daughter returned to school on Thursday, but again came home immediately after school without attending her extra-curricular activities.
The girl told her mother she felt threatened by the student who stabbed her with the tapestry needle. The daughter said the girl gave her threatening looks all day, and made teeth-sucking sounds when she walked by.
On Friday, she stayed home from school again; both for fear of retaliation, and to receive the battery of vaccination shots at the pediatrician. A puncture wound like hers is more serious than her mother knew. Tracey Wise told The Bay Net that her daughter’s physician is angry with her for waiting two days before bringing her in for shots.
“I didn’t even realize it was so urgent,” she explained. “I just didn’t know.”
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