Mom of school stabbing victim lost another son in ’08 tragedy

By L.A. PARKER
Staff Writer of Trentonian

TRENTON — Yesterday’s second stabbing at a Trenton school in 28 days made the victim’s mother fearful she’d be burying a son for the second time in 17 months.

Misty DeJesus’ 13-year-old son received two minor wounds when attacked as he was walking out of the boys room at the troubled Dunn Middle School in the South Ward at 11:30 a.m.

“Sure, that went through my mind after hearing that my son had been stabbed. I didn’t know how bad it was at the time, but I thought the worst,” the mother said.

DeJesus’ seventh-grade son suffered minor wounds to his back and arm. Capital Health-Fuld treated and released him after administering several tests.

Police said the stabbing was the result of a “play fight” in a boys lavatory. They said the suspect, a 12-year-old classmate, pulled out a large folding knife during the scuffle.

The victim, police said, was walking out of the bathroom when he realized he had been cut during the incident. They said he then ran to his classroom and told his teacher what occurred.

DeJesus said she received a phone call about her injured son at 11:40 a.m.: “They just said he had been stabbed and that he was being taken to Helene Fuld.

“My son said he was in the bathroom and two boys were in there fighting,” said DeJesus, a nurse. “One boy had a knife and he was waving it in the face of the other boy. As my son came out of the bathroom stall to wash his hands, he got stabbed in the back.”

In August 2008, DeJesus buried an 8-year-old son, Malachi Williams, who police said hanged himself in an accidental asphyxiation. Investigators never determined if Williams had engaged in what’s called the “hanging game” or “choking game,” in which children intentionally strangle themselves to a point near passing out.

Police found Williams hanging on the third floor of his family’s home on the 300 block of Woodland Street.

Yesterday’s attack marked a second knife incident in a month at a city school. On Jan. 27, a Trenton Central High School coed pulled a knife out of her bra and attempted to attack another girl.

A security officer, Tyrone McNeese, intervened and received a slash on his arm, an injury that required several stitches and forced him to miss work for several days.

A few days later Superintendent of Schools Rodney Lofton said concern about patting down girls figured into security officers getting lax and letting female students through when they touch off the metal detectors at the school entry.

Lofton and the school security chief, retired city detective Howard B. White, said the procedures will be tightened to prevent another such stabbing.

After yesterday’s Dunn incident, Trenton police spokesman Sgt. Pedro Medina said investigators found out that the victim, like McNeese last month, was injured when caught in the middle of a fight between two others.

Police said the victim’s teacher secured the knife and the 12-year-old suspect was detained, charged with aggravated assault and held in the Mercer County youth lockup in Ewing.