A 9-year-old girl brought a knife into Annie Burnside Elementary School and began wielding it inside the cafeteria, leaving one classmate with a small cut to the upper body that did not require medical treatment, according to the Richland County Sheriff's Department. School employees removed the knife from the girl and took the children involved to the front office, where deputies questioned them.
Conflicting Accounts Of What Happened
According to the WCIV report, the sheriff's department said the girl presented the knife with the intent to harm other children. A report from The State similarly says deputies described the child as having threatened peers and attacked one student after she began wielding the knife in the cafeteria. But WIS-TV reports that Richland County School District One said the injury was believed to be accidental based on the information available at the time, even as the station also reported that the girl brought the knife intending to harm other students. The dossier does not resolve which account is accurate, and both versions remain attributed to their respective sources.
WIS-TV reports that a school resource officer was called to the cafeteria Monday morning after the knife was found on the student. The station says the Richland County Sheriff's Department spoke with the children involved and the 9-year-old's parents. The outlet adds that administrators are reviewing the incident and that appropriate action will be taken under Richland One's Student Code of Conduct.
Investigation Continues As District Reviews Discipline
The sheriff's department says the incident remains under investigation, and no information has been released about potential charges or the discipline the student could face. South Carolina law makes it unlawful, with limited exceptions for certain law-enforcement or school-authorized personnel, to carry a knife with a blade longer than two inches onto elementary or secondary school property, according to the South Carolina Legislature. It is not clear from available records how that statute might apply in this specific case.
Part of a Broader Pattern in Richland County Schools
The knife at Annie Burnside comes roughly seven weeks after a string of firearm incidents rattled Richland County campuses. In August, two students — including a 6-year-old carrying an assault pistol loaded with .300 Blackout rounds — and one adult were caught with firearms at schools across the county, according to a separate report from The State. A 16-year-old at Richland Northeast High School was arrested after being found with a handgun and a magazine holding 17 rounds, the same report says.
Weapons on South Carolina campuses are not a new problem. Schools statewide reported finding weapons 1,089 times over a recent three-year stretch, according to the Post and Courier, with state reports defining a weapon broadly enough to include anything from a 2-inch pocket knife to a rifle. In Greenville County Schools, knives were by far the most commonly confiscated weapon between 2014 and 2017, the paper reported, while Richland 1 reported confiscating nine firearms during the 2015-16 school year alone.
Elementary-age children bringing knives to class is not unique to South Carolina. In Virginia, a 9-year-old was found with a knife in a desk at Berkeley Glenn Elementary School in Waynesboro after another student reported it, and a school resource officer there confirmed the blade measured 3.5 inches, according to WHSV. In Texas, a first-grader brought a mini keychain knife to John C. Webb Elementary School in Navasota and threatened a classmate, with the district saying it followed standard campus safety and disciplinary procedures, per KBTX.
For now, Richland County investigators say their work on the Annie Burnside case is not finished, and the district has not detailed what disciplinary steps, if any, will follow its review.
