‘I thought I was going to die’: School staff recount terror of C.P. Allen High School stabbings

Staff members of a Halifax-area high school recalled being covered in blood, screaming for help and being terrified when they were attacked by a student with a knife.

At the teenager’s sentencing hearing Tuesday in Halifax youth court, two victims provided dramatic details of what happened on March 20, 2023, at Charles P. Allen High School in Bedford, N.S.

A 16-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault in the case. His identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act and CBC is not naming the victims.

Their victim impact statements Tuesday revealed what they endured that day and the lasting trauma they continue to deal with.

One victim said his diaphragm was “cut open” when he was stabbed by the teen, who had been called to the office in connection with unauthorized posters being put up at the school.

It was during discussions about possible disciplinary measures that the teen pulled a knife out of his bag, according to an agreed statement of facts previously entered into court.

Blood, panic and the worst phone call

“Blood was running out of me so fast I almost panicked,” the man said. “I thought I was going to die from bleeding out.”

His wife of 32 years said the incident was horrific and changed her life.

She said she received what she described as the worst phone call she could ever get from her husband, who told her he had been “stabbed twice in the back.” She immediately went to the hospital where he had been taken.

“What I witnessed in that room, I will never forget … my husband laying there covered in blood from the top of his head and all over his body and his hands, to the floor around us.”

She said a tube had been inserted in his chest “to remove blood pooling from the artery.”

Recurring nightmares and PTSD

The woman held back tears as she spoke of her own anguish since the attack, describing that she is anxious and fearful around people, and has recurring nightmares about her husband being harmed.

The man talked about his own nightmares and said he is now managing post-traumatic stress disorder.

A second school staff member said she was “petrified watching the violence being inflicted.”

But while screaming for help, she was soon dealing with her own injuries.

Phone call to parents to say goodbye

“I felt my arm being grabbed, followed by a really hard hit,” she said.

“My artery was hit and my lung was punctured. I thought I was going to die on the office floor. Blood was flowing in and out of me like a river.”

Because she was losing blood and believed her life was in peril, she said she called her parents “to say goodbye and to tell them I loved them.”

She has also been in trauma therapy since the attack and said she is trying to forget her colleague’s screams of terror.

Both staff members credit two students for coming to their aid.

Judge Elizabeth Buckle praised the victims for their statements and the grace in which they were delivered. 

Teen takes responsibility: defence

While they were reading their statements, the teen sat alongside his lawyers, for the most part casting his eyes downward.

The defence said he had written apologies to both victims, but they stood up in court together to make it clear they did not want to see them.

The teen takes responsibility for the attack, his lawyers said, and has been taking steps in his rehabilitation.

Because of the work he is already doing in that regard, and violations of his Charter rights by police and a former sheriff’s deputy, the defence believes a sentence served in the community is appropriate. It is asking for a two-year conditional discharge.

However, the Crown is suggesting an 18-month sentence, with 12 months in custody and six months served under supervision in the community, to be followed by six months of probation.

The judge is expected to hand down her decision next month.