A 15-year-old University High School student was arrested Sept. 11 for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and possession of a weapon on school grounds after he allegedly attacked another student with a small knife during a fight at the Orange City school.

According to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office, around 3:40 p.m. that day the school’s resource officer, Deputy Christopher Igo, responded to a campus adviser’s report that a student was armed with a knife at the school bus loop.

By the time the deputy had arrived, according to the arrest affidavit, there was “a large commotion.” Inside the gym area, Igo found one male student with two lacerations on the side of his face. 

According to the boy who was hurt, throughout the day he and the 15-year-old were quarreling over an incident at lunch. That argument ultimately led to a fight in the bus loop as school was dismissed.

The 15-year-old student who had been allegedly armed with the knife, which was described in the charging affidavit as “a black key shape” with a “folding knife blade,” was arrested after surveillance and cellphone footage was reviewed. According to the report, the footage showed the 15-year-old punching the other student, initiating the incident, then attacking with a knife. 

While the 15-year-old at first denied ever using the weapon, later recovered by the firefighters from a drain by the bus loop, according to the report he eventually admitted to using the knife in self-defense. The other student maintains that he was attacked first and defended himself. 

The 15-year-old student was transported to the Volusia Family Resource Center, a juvenile assessment center run by the Sheriff’s Office.

When the report of the knife was first heard over the school radio, Deputy Igo was processing two other felony juvenile arrests unconnected to the bus loop fight. 

According to reports on the earlier incident, about 30 minutes prior to the altercation involving the knife, two female cousins ages 14 and 16 fought another female student. Both the 14- and 16-year-old allegedly struck campus advisers who were attempting to break up that fight.

The two female juveniles were both charged with battery on a school official, and the 16-year-old was additionally charged with resisting with violence. 

The pair were also transported to the Family Resource Center.