Police: Student brought machete to school

OCOEE, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Ocoee Police say they were called in, after an attack in a bathroom at Ocoee High School left one student bloody, and students and parents were left in the dark.

“I see a whole bunch of teachers and administrators and everybody surrounding this boy and I think ok, it was a fight,” said Thalia Burt, an Ocoee HS Senior.

Burt remembers the brawl and the blood, but she doesn't remember any school officials telling her what had happened.

“Nobody knew, the school didn't tell nobody,” Burt said, “and for something like that to happen and all of us kids being there, it's crazy, 'cause we wouldn't have known, what if it happens to us?”

Ocoee police say it started in a bathroom, where a 15-year-old student ambushed a classmate with a machete. Police say he jumped out of a stall and slashed the victim on the wrist. They say they arrested the attacker in the parking lot and found the machete on the grass in the bus circle. Officials never told the community, though, and parents say that's wrong.

“Of course, we should have been told, yes,” said Willy Kemp, who was picking up his grandson from the school, “a letter should've been sent out, or something.”

We went to the alleged attacker's house for answers. A pair who identified themselves as his cousins said he was being bullied at school. “They were all picking on him,” the woman said.

The school nurse bandaged up the victim's arm, he wasn't seriously hurt. Students say violence on campus happens too often, though.

“There's a lot of fights here all the time,” said Caden Trocki, a Ocoee HS Senior, “that's why we have a lot of cops here on campus but that doesn't make anyone feel that much better.”

The alleged attacker is charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and having a weapon on school property. He's being held in juvenile detention, without bond.