13-year-old in custody after 3 teens stabbed at Pa. school

~ All three victims were released following treatment for minor wounds.

READING, Pa. -- A 13-year-old armed with a propane torch slashed a girl with a knife before other students jumped on him, disabling him before school officials disarmed him.

The girl and two other students suffered minor stab wounds.

The alleged attacker was taken into custody by police after school officials disarmed the boy. Students at Antietam Middle-Senior High School, which includes seventh through 12th grades, then were taken to a district building elsewhere.

"As a parent, as an officer, I would be very proud of what those students did. They had to make a hasty decision whether they wanted to become involved. Very admirable," Berks Regional police officer Raymond Serafin said.

Principal James Snyder and a teacher confronted the student in a hallway after the initial attack, and talked to him for about 15 minutes. When it appeared the boy was unwilling to surrender, another teacher walked up behind the boy and swatted his arm, knocking the propane canister from his hand, Snyder said.

"He was very upset with the school and with all the people who were in the school at that particular time," Snyder said.

A 16-year-old girl was taken to Reading Hospital with cuts to both hands, hospital spokesman William J. Rudolph Jr. said. Doctors also treated a 15-year-old girl with a small wound to her upper back and a 14-year-old boy with a small wound to his upper right arm, he said. All three have been released, Rudolph said.

Ninth-grader Jim Greager, 14, said he was in a hallway when he saw another student running down the hall screaming, "Help! Help! Help!"

Brian Macluskie, 15, also a ninth-grader, said students thought it was a drill when the school was evacuated, "until we saw cop cars out front."

"People were crying; they were scared. Everyone was calling parents on cell phones. Rumors started flying," Macluskie said.

The school is in Lower Alsace Township, about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia.