Students at Dunbarton High School in Pickering, Ont. east of Toronto are returning to class on Wednesday a day after nine people were stabbed by a 14-year-old female student forcing the school into a lockdown.
School officials say support staff and counselling services will be made available to students for the rest of the week.
Police say six students and three staff members were injured after a female student walked into the school Tuesday morning around 8:30 a.m. ET and stabbed her victims with two knives.
Police say two staff members managed to intervene and stop the youth from causing further injuries before officers arrived on scene.
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All the victims suffered non-life threatening injuries but some were transported to hospital for treatment and later released.
The knife attack prompted a school lockdown which lasted until 10:15 a.m. when it was lifted and students were allowed to return home.
Several students told Global News they witnessed the suspect holding large knifes as they entered class in the morning.
“I just walked into school today and when I got here, I just saw everyone run,” said Grade 12 student Dalton who did not want to give out his last name.
“I didn’t know what to do. Then I saw a girl with two knives.”
Grade 10 student Sam Turner was also heading into class at the time of the incident and described the scene as chaotic.
“Teachers were moving around screaming and telling us to get into classrooms and students were coming telling us to get into classrooms … a lot of us thought it was a joke,” said Turner.
Global News learned there was an apparent forewarning of the attack in a blog post on a popular social media website, in which an author alluded to planning a knife attack at a Canadian high school.
Durham Regional Police were alerted to the post and said they are investigating, but are not yet able to confirm its validity.
Police say don’t believe any particular student or staff member was targeted in the attack.
The 14-year-old student was charged with 15 criminal offences including assault, assault causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon and possession weapons dangerous.
The accused was scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.
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