Student made a blade from a pencil sharpener, cut a classmate, SC district says

A South Carolina middle school student faces criminal charges for cutting a classmate with a makeshift blade, according to the school district.

The incident happened Tuesday at Gable Middle School in Spartanburg County.

The sixth-grade student removed the metal from a pencil sharpener and wrapped part of it in tape, Spartanburg County School District 6 spokeswoman Cynthia Robinson said in a release. That student cut another student on the arm while in the cafeteria line.

The school resource officer was notified and, after investigating, charged the sixth-grader with second-degree assault and battery and possession of a weapon on school property, Robinson said. The injured student was taken to a family doctor as a precaution.

Robinson said the student who was charged told officials it was an accident. That student faces expulsion; however, there was no word on what action had been taken against the student.

The school posted a statement to its Facebook page Tuesday evening saying it was in response to an article about the incident published in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal.

“While the information in the article is accurate we did not contact the media to share this story,” the post reads. “A reporter ... emailed us in reference to an inaccurate rumor being spread. We provided the media with a statement only to clear up the misinformation and they chose to run the story.”

The school called the incident an “isolated” event between two students, and said it would follow up with a phone statement to parents Wednesday morning.

This story was originally published August 29, 2018 at 11:30 AM.