Student recounts watching girl, 13, brutally bash classmate in head with Stanley cup during unprovoked attack: ‘Blood everywhere’

US News

By Isabel Keane

A brave middle school student has described her horror after watching a 13-year-old girl repeatedly bash a classmate in the head with a metal Stanley cup in an unprovoked attack — leaving “blood everywhere” and students traumatized.

“I just hear all this screaming and everybody running. All of sudden you just hear these terrible loud bangs of the Stanley bouncing off her head,” Emily recounted at a school board meeting.

“We had to sit in there and watch them clean up the blood off those tables and ground, and we had to watch them take her out with blood dripping down her face and I will never forget that.”

Parents of students at Pennbrook Middle School in North Wales, Pa., slammed administrators for failing to heed warnings about the attacker who allegedly had a “hit list” of students she planned to target.

Seventh graders told their guidance counselor they heard “something’s going to happen at lunch,” but school officials failed to act, allowing the violent attack to unfold in front of students in the cafeteria, parent Stephanie Palovcak told WPIV.

“When you get a phone call from your child crying saying, ‘Mom, help, there’s blood everywhere,’” she recalled through tears.

Police in the community northwest of Philadelphia said the “unprovoked, sudden, violent attack” unfolded around 1:20 p.m. on Wednesday when the aggressor came up behind a 12-year-old classmate and immediately began hitting her in the head with her Stanley cup — the ubiquitous must-have drink tumbler for the TikTok generation.

Emily, a student who witnessed the lunch-time attack, said she would never forget watching her classmate being taken to the hospital covered in blood.

A security guard and teacher quickly intervened in the attack, which left the victim visibly bleeding from the head, according to surveillance footage viewed by the station.

The middle school was put on lockdown for eight minutes as police and first responders arrived. Police said the victim had to get staples in her head and is on concussion watch.

Parents of children in the district described the heart-stopping moment their child called or texted them after witnessing the bloody attack.

Sarah Batory became emotional describing a text she received from her son on Wednesday, recalling that he texted her, “Mom, I’m scared.”

“I can’t even tell you what’ it’s like to get a text message like that when your kid’s at school,” she told Fox 29.

“The fear in these kids’ voices. This had to be a brutal attack because so many kids were screaming and crying,” parent Megan Krache told WPIV.

Other parents, like Palovcak, said that they or their child had reported the 13-year-old student to school counselors earlier in the week.

Mom Alyssa Santiago says she voiced her concerns to school officials after the student threated her daughter.

“If it were taken serious, by multiple complaints, that little girl would’ve been in school today and my daughter is traumatized.”

Palovcak added, “It did not have to come to this. It did not have to come to this if they took action sooner.”

Parents said the alleged attacker was a new student who started on Monday, just two days before the incident unfolded on Wednesday.

“There were multiple parents who reached out about this child making threats,” Palovcak said, adding that the student allegedly had a list of students they wanted to beat up.

Stefan Ross told WPIV his son went to the student’s previous school, where she was expelled after alleged violent incidents.

“The person came out from the trees and brandished a knife on my son and his friend,” he said of an incident that allegedly happened off school grounds.

In a letter to parents, Superintendent Todd Bauer denied that the student was transferred to Pennbrook after being expelled for violent behavior at another school.

“This should not have happened period, as an educator, your superintendent and a father, I’m appalled by what happened,” Bauer told concerned parents during a school board meeting Thursday night.

“We are currently pursuing the details leading up to this incident and why it occurred. We are also collaborating with our local law enforcement in their investigation as we work to ensure that something like this can’t happen again.”

Police say the accused student will likely face several charges including felony aggravated assault.