Sauk Rapids Student Attacks Three Other Children

Chief Perry Beise says the victims aged 8, 9 and 13 suffered ``superficial wounds'' requiring stitches in the attack before classes started Monday at Pleasantview Elementary in Sauk Rapids.

SAUK RAPIDS, Minn. (AP) _ Authorities say an 8-year-old student took a kitchen knife to a central Minnesota elementary school and attacked three other children.

Chief Perry Beise says the victims aged 8, 9 and 13 suffered “superficial wounds” requiring stitches in the attack before classes started Monday at Pleasantview Elementary in Sauk Rapids.

No one else was hurt.

School Superintendent Bruce Watkins says the boy lashed out at the other students until an adult intervened.

Beise says the boy was interviewed by police and released to his parents. The case will be forwarded to the county prosecutor’s office.

One of the injured children is a seventh-grader who was waiting to catch a transfer bus.

The other two are Pleasantview Elementary students.

The police chief in a Minnesota city where an 8-year-old slashed three other students with a knife says he wishes he knew why the boy did it.

Sauk Rapids Police Chief Perry Beise says the boy randomly cut three children at Pleasantview Elementary School on Monday morning, then went into the office and set the knife down.

Beise says that when officers arrived, the boy was in a counselor’s office while the three children, who were not seriously hurt, were being treated by the school nurse.

The chief says he doesn’t know if the boy had been bullied or had mental health issues. He says the boy cooperated with investigators.

Beise says authorities don’t file charges against children that young, they instead try to get them help.