A student was hospitalized Thursday morning after being assaulted with a deadly weapon at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, leaving a male juvenile with an upper-body wound that school staff first treated as a puncture injury before paramedics arrived. The suspect fled the 4400 block of East 10th Street before officers got to campus, and no arrest had been announced as of Thursday evening.
Long Beach police described the incident as an assault with a deadly weapon, according to NBC Los Angeles. Long Beach Fire Department personnel transported the injured student to a local hospital, and his injuries were described as not life-threatening. Information about the type of weapon used, the identity of the victim, and details about the suspect were not immediately available, per the same report.
School officials said additional patrols were deployed to the Wilson High campus following the assault, the outlet reported. District safety personnel and Long Beach police are jointly investigating the incident, though it remains unclear which agency will lead any prosecution referral if the juvenile suspect is apprehended.
A Campus With a Recent History of Weapon Incidents
Thursday's assault lands almost exactly one year after Long Beach police arrested a male juvenile on the same campus after district safety personnel caught him with a firearm on August 29, 2025. That history adds weight to questions about how the district and city police coordinate on serious weapon calls at a school that enrolls roughly 3,349 students across grades 9 through 12, according to background data cited by Wikipedia.
Wilson High has faced other high-profile security scares in recent years. In February 2018, a 16-year-old junior was arrested for making criminal threats on campus, prompting Long Beach police to add patrols across district high schools at the time, per an iHeart report from that period.
Legal Stakes If a Weapon Charge Follows
Any weapon found to have been brought onto the campus could trigger California Penal Code § 626.10, which makes possessing dangerous weapons — including dirks, daggers, folding knives with locking blades, or knives longer than 2.5 inches — on K-12 school grounds a wobbler offense chargeable as either a misdemeanor or a felony, according to Justia Law. The statute covers school grounds broadly, including adjacent parking areas and athletic fields.
How that charge might ultimately be pursued is complicated by a district policy shift already underway. In September 2025, Long Beach Unified School District proposed empowering its in-house School Safety Officers to handle low-level offenses, issue citations, and make arrests on campus rather than calling municipal police, as reported by LAist. That proposal was designed to route cited students into district diversion programs rather than criminal court, though it is not yet clear how such a framework would apply to a serious assault case like Thursday's.
Broader Scrutiny Over Campus Safety in Long Beach
The district has also been under legal pressure over how it handles violence among students. In May, a 17-year-old filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against LBUSD and Wilson High administrators, alleging officials failed to protect him after he was severely beaten by student-athletes in April 2025 — a case Hoodline covered in a Long Beach surfer's legal fight. That complaint alleges video of the beating circulated on social media and that anonymous death threats were later sent through the school's own reporting app.
Other LBUSD campuses have seen their own violent flashpoints. In November 2023, a student at nearby Millikan High School attacked a teacher before other students intervened, an incident Hoodline reported triggered a district safety probe that considered penalties up to expulsion. And in October 2024, a district safety officer discharged a service weapon during a burglary investigation at Millikan, prompting joint probes by district safety personnel and city police.
Even as these incidents accumulate, the district has been promoting a parallel push toward non-punitive discipline. In July, 13 LBUSD campuses earned statewide recognition from California PBIS for implementing positive behavioral intervention frameworks intended to reduce campus conflicts ahead of the 2026–27 school year. Wilson High itself is marking its centennial in 2026, having opened in 1926 as Long Beach's second public high school, according to Wikipedia.
No further details on the suspect, the weapon, or the victim's identity had been released as of Thursday evening. Hoodline will update this story as Long Beach police and district officials release more information.
