Fatal student stabbing in Harding High School roils St. Paul

The fatal stabbing Friday in St. Paul's Harding High School occurred amid a growing sense among Minnesota students that their schools are no longer as safe.

Leaders across the Twin Cities responded with urgent calls to increase security and protect students after the deadly encounter between two students. The Teamsters Local 320 union, which counts the mother of the slain 15-year-old boy as a member, asked "elected leadership to partner with us in making this change now."

"A young 10th-grade student lost his life when he should have been safe in one of our schools," the union said. "A mother lost her son, and we are all in a state of shock and grief."

The victim's name has not been released, and St. Paul police spokesman Mike Ernster gave no updates Saturday about what led to the stabbing.

He said the medical examiner would release the teenager's name Monday.

Harding Principal Be Vang said Monday's classes are canceled to give staff and students "time and space to process this traumatic event."

A candlelight vigil organized by the St. Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) is planned from 6-7 p.m. Monday.

Several people believed to be immediate family members of the victim have not responded to inquiries from the Star Tribune. Authorities also haven't named any students involved in the stabbing, including the 16-year-old who was taken into police custody Friday.

Violent fatalities on Minnesota high school campuses are rare, though the stabbing came about one year after a shooting left another 15-year-old dead outside the South Education Building in Richfield. Results from the recent Minnesota Student Survey nonetheless show a worrisome decline in student perceptions of safety.

Among high school juniors, the share who said they "strongly" believed their schools were safe declined from 52% in 2013 to 26% in 2022, according to survey results. The share who said they believed they were unsafe more than doubled from 6% to 13%.

St. Paul Public Schools did not participate in the 2022 survey, so student perceptions from that district weren't available. But about 16% of juniors surveyed in other schools across Ramsey County said they felt unsafe.

A district spokesperson said Saturday that the level of violence seen Friday at Harding is rare and that there's no record of a student previously being killed in a St. Paul public school.

District educators said they expect many students to struggle with grief and trauma over the killing.

"I'm enraged. I'm sad," said Leah VanDassor, president of SPFE, Local 28. "I know there have been far too many similar incidents around our community that have left many of us heartbroken and hopeless."

The union is affiliated with Education Minnesota, which marked the Feb. 1, 2022, Richfield shooting with calls to fund more mental health services for students.

The most effective security for high schools has been a nationwide dispute. St. Paul schools stopped using police as school resource officers (SROs) in 2020 and instead deployed school liaison workers who carried pepper spray and handcuffs. Studies have found that the resource officers can contribute to equity problems, such as the referral of more misbehaving minority students to law enforcement than white students.

Upset parents wondered if circumstances demand more police presence at St. Paul schools. Joseph Moore said his 14-year-old son was robbed at Como Park High School in December.

"How much longer do we have to live in constant fear for our children's safety?" he asked.

The stabbing occurred the same week that Minnesota lawmakers introduced safe schools legislation that would increase funding for security, drug prevention and cybersecurity.

"My heart goes out to the Harding High Community and the family and friends of the lost student," said Rep. Mary Frances Clardy, DFL-Inver Grove Heights, the lead author of the bill.

Some residents, including Satara Strong-Allen with Love First Community Engagement, gathered people at the Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center on Friday to help them come to grips with the killing and to heal. Strong-Allen said the community must uplift and support young people in order to deter such encounters from happening again.

"I think a lot of people are overwhelmed — shocked, you know? It's not a incident where you can just quickly move on," Strong-Allen said. "[The] community is tired of this, and so moving forward I think it's really important to invest into our young people."