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Staff who responded to stabbing in Orem high school locker room share their story

Posted at 6:47 AM, Nov 17, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-17 08:47:04-05

OREM, Utah - New details were released Wednesday surrounding the stabbing of six students, including the student suspect, at Mountain View High School.

Principal Taran Chun said the bell rang and then he heard what happened from a student witness.

"This young man runs up to me with all the urgency and says, 'Principal, principal, principal! Someone is trying to kill people in the boy's locker room.' And I went running," Chun said.

A victim who was holding his bloodied neck ran up to a health and weight training teacher named Jordan Blanchard.

"All the training and all the preparation in the world doesn’t prepare you for that," Blanchard said.

He was one of the first to rush inside the locker room.

"I didn’t know if I was going to find someone who was still actively attacking individuals, or who would then come after me," he said.

Blanchard said he saw one of the five injured students being helped by other students on the ground. Then he said he saw the student suspect holding a knife.

"He was hearing and responding to us, but he did not put the weapon down," Blanchard said.

Fortunately, Blanchard, Chun and other staffers helped keep the student's attention fixed on them until officers were able to show up and bring the student suspect down.

Chun said the student victims deserved all the credit because they alerted everybody to the danger. Then he had this message for the student who to came him: "That is amazing you had the awareness right after being blacked out from being hit in the head to get to authority and found me. You’re a hero."