School district sued in Snohomish High School stabbing

A preventable tragedy – That’s what a Seattle attorney calls the nearly fatal stabbing of two Snohomish High School freshman last fall when another student went to campus armed with two large kitchen knives prepared to kill.

April Lutz and Bekah Staudacher were putting on makeup and preparing for class in a school bathroom when a sophomore burst out of one of the the stalls and attacked them.

Lutz was stabbed more than a dozen times with the blade nicking her heart and lungs. Staudacher tried to fight off the attacker and protect her friend. She was slashed in the arm and back.

When students found out who was responsible, there was no surprise.

The sophomore was well known on campus. She had been expelled the previous year for threatening to kill another student. She had spoken with school counselors about fantasies she was having about killing herself and others. She was being medicated. She had been sent to a mental hospital to deal with her anger, but she was cleared to return to class.

Attorney Sim Osborn, representing the victims, says the teen should have never been allowed back on campus.

“There’s an indication the school district and the hospital ignored clear warning signs that this attacker was capable of this type of violence,” he said. “It was just simply not a question of how, but when. She was just waiting for an opportunity to commit these acts, and there was knowledge on both parties that this was the case.”

Osborn said the Snohomish School District and the Fairfax Hospital in Kirkland where this teen was treated were asleep at the wheel when they let her back on campus.

“The civil justice system is the only way to hold these people accountable and these entities accountable,” Osborn said.

The now 16-year-old attacker pleaded guilty in March. She is serving 13 years in prison. She’ll spend the first five in the juvenile system before being moved to an adult prison. She is getting treatment.

Osborn said the two victims are still struggling.

“They’re doing the best they can,” he said. “It’s going to be with them for the rest of their lives. They’ve got these scars that they are going to carry with them for the rest of their life, but they have the mental scars that are going to stay with them forever.”

Osborn said both girls have since transferred from Snohomish High School.

The civil lawsuit names the district, the hospital and the attacker’s parents. It does not list a dollar figure Osborn is trying to get for his clients.