(WXYZ) — A Detroit mother and her daughter have been charged in the stabbing of a 13-year-old girl at Gompers Elementary-Middle School last week.
Watch the arraignment in the video below
An eighth-grade student stabbed another eighth-grade student, according to Detroit Public Schools Community District.
Watch below: Bullying may have led to Detroit school stabbing
It's alleged that Lacara Anita Parks, 37, gave her 13-year-old daughter a pocketknife to use if she needed to defend herself on the way home from school.
That knife was then used in the stabbing of the 13-year-old victim. The district said a student’s mother gave her child a small knife inside the school.
Parks was arraigned on the charge on Wednesday and given a $50,000 personal bond. During the arraignment, the prosecutor said Parks retrieved the knife from her daughter's room. Prosecutors said the victim was stabbed five times.
Watch below: Mom and child arrested after student stabbed at Detroit school, district says
“The security guard has been removed from the school pending an investigation that could lead to termination,” part of a statement said from DPSCD.
Parks has been charged with two misdemeanors – Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor and Possession of a Weapon in a Weapons-Free School Zone, and the teen was charged with Assault with Intent to do Great Bodily Harm, and Possession of a Weapon in a Weapons-Free School Zone
“This case illustrates that a lot of things went wrong on many levels and as a result a child was stabbed. It’s unacceptable. We can do so much better than this for our children,” said Prosecutor Kym Worthy.
The stabbing also revealed troubling details about both security lapses and ongoing bullying issues that may have contributed to the violence.
Sources within the district say accusations of bullying led up to the stabbing incident that occurred Wednesday morning. The attack has highlighted concerns from parents who claim their complaints about bullying were dismissed by school staff.
"No one wants to be bothered with the situation when we as parents bring it to the staff at the schools, you know, 'what are you going to do about the bullying?'" said Roslyn McGraw, whose daughter attends the school and knows the students involved in the stabbing. "'Well, we gotta see,' or whatever, 'We gotta talk about it.' They sweep it under the rug until somebody gets hurt."
McGraw said she received a cold response when she previously raised bullying concerns with school officials.
"It's sad because they totally disregarded it when I brought it up to them. They was looking at me like I didn't know what I was talking about," McGraw said.
The victim's family has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Detroit Public Schools Community District in the wake of the stabbing. They say security guards didn't search Parks, even though she triggered the metal detector.
Dakota Durkins' family says the girl's wounds are healing, but she is still emotionally raw after being stabbed in a classroom.
"It really comes down to people doing their job and the gross negligence, the sad negligence, the real situation here is those people didn't care enough to do their job, and Dakota is going to live with that carelessness, that recklessness for the rest of her life," says the family's attorney, Alex Benson.
Benson is one of the attorneys who filed the $10 million lawsuit on behalf of the 14-year-old and her mother, Jazlyn Morgan.
Morgan says her daughter is still shaken up.
"I don't think she's concerned about the why yet," Morgan says. "I think she's still trying to process that it happened."
Benson says the metal detector being triggered should have stopped the stabbing.
"The security measure did its job. The metal detector did its job. So, it wasn't an equipment failure; it was a people failure," he says.
Detroit Public Schools Community District issued the following statement about the lawsuit:
DPSCD will not comment regarding a potential or ongoing lawsuit. With that said, the District is actively working on holding employees who failed to implement clearly defined protocols in place accountable by completing a thorough review of the incident and events that occurred before the attack occurred. We have also added personnel to Gompers to ensure everyone’s safety and plan to enhance safety protocols across the District.
