On April 9, 2014, Franklin Regional High School became part of a club no one wants join: the locations of school violence.
Alex Hribal was 16 that day. He showed up at school that Wednesday morning dressed in black. Minutes before classes began, the attack began.
Like all such attacks, it was scary for the students and the teachers. It was violent and bloody.
When it was all done, Hribal was restrained by another student and the assistant principal. There were 22 people injured. Twenty were students. One was a security guard. Hribal was the last. He injured his hand.
But there were no deaths, which is what sets it apart from so many other incidents. Franklin Regional had the most injuries in a school attack since the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. And that may be the difference.
At Sandy Hook Elementary, Adam Lanza, 20, killed 26 people, including the principal, three teachers, the school psychologist and 21 children ages 6 and 7. He injured two others. He also killed his mother at home before leaving for the school and killing himself.
His weapons were a Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle, a bolt action rifle and a semi-automatic handgun.
Hribal’s attack was dangerous and painful. Two people were in critical condition and two in serious condition, but everyone survived. Hribal’s weapons were two kitchen knives.
In the aftermath, the Franklin Regional stabbing was used by some as a demonstration that the problem with school violence is not guns. The problem, they said, was the perpetrator’s mental health.
Ten years later, little progress has been made in preventing school violence. Ask the parents of Uvalde, Texas, or Nashville, Tenn., or Parkland, Fla., or Oxford, Mich.
Closer to home, we have seen students killed outside Oliver Citywide Academy on two occasions. We have seen others shot. Guns or bullets have made their way into other schools or buses.
Providing mental health treatment for people of all ages remains a struggle. In schools, this can lead to violence that explodes outward and affects others. We need to be just as concerned about that violence turned inward, leading to addiction and self-harm.
In the 10 years since Hribal’s stabbing spree, there are things that have changed. Hribal is in prison. The physical wounds have healed. But there are still far too many issues with our schools that have been bandaged over and not actually treated.