Pupils
pricked with sharp object
Warren Hills school probes incident at
dance
Tuesday, February 15, 2005 • BY REBECCA SCHMOYER •
Star-Ledger Staff
Parents with children in Warren Hills Middle School are
looking for answers after at least 20 pupils were stabbed
with a sharp, pointed object at a school dance last
Friday.
District superintendent Peter Merluzzi said students
were dancing to loud music in the darkened school gym when
an unknown person circulating in the crowd started to attack
them with a sharp object.
Merluzzi said about 20 kids were attacked, although
parents say more than 20 pupils were injured at the dance at
the school in Washington.
Holly Shulack's 14-year-old daughter Heather was stabbed
in the arm by the unknown assailant. Shulack said parents of
kids who were hurt by the attacker want to know who is
responsible and what weapon the assailant used.
"We don't have any idea what our kids were injured with.
What if it was an HIV needle? What if it held someone's
medicine from home?" said Shulack, who is from Washington
Township. "My daughter said it felt like a needle."
Merluzzi said the school nurse has examined the wounds
and reported that the punctures were not deep enough to have
been caused by a needle. "It was more likely a pin or a
tack," he said.
Merluzzi said parents were advised to make sure injured
students have a valid tetanus inoculation, and if they do
not, to take their child to the doctor to have the vaccine
updated.
Heather Shulack, an eighth- grader, said there were
likely more than 100 pupils at the dance.
"At the beginning it was fine. In the middle of the
dance, people started to get stabbed with something. A
couple of my friends got it. A bunch of people were looking
for the kid who was doing it. Then I got it in my elbow. It
felt like a safety pin sticking in you and it hurt."
Kim DeAmelia, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from
Washington Township also was stabbed.
'We were all dancing. You couldn't see anyone behind
you," DeAmelia said." Someone came up behind us and stabbed
us and scraped us with a pin. I got scraped in the elbow. It
swelled up and hurt very bad for several days."
DeAmelia said her main concern is that the object the
attacker used might have been contaminated by bacteria or
germs. She said she went to the doctor to have blood drawn
and tested.
"I know at least ten kids who went to the doctor today
to get tested for a bunch of things like hepatitis and HIV.
Whatever they were using had been through everybody at that
dance," DeAmelia said. "You don't know what could be on
it.
"The messed-up part was that when people started getting
scraped there was no nurse at our dance so we could get the
scrapes cleaned up," said DeAmelia. "And now the kid is on
the loose until we find out who it is."
Staff at the school spent yesterday questioning pupils
about the incident, Merluzzi said. The district sent a
notice home informing parents about what happened and urged
pupils who know anything about the attack to come forward
and report what happened to school authorities, he
said.
Merluzzi said the names of pupils who provide
information about the attacks and what they report will be
kept confidential.
"Police were contacted first thing this morning. We have
put a notice out to students that we are interested in
finding out who is responsible," Merluzzi said. "When we
find out who did it, we intend to prosecute them."
Rebecca Schmoyer can be reached at rschmoyer@starled
ger.com or (908) 475-1218.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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