A special education teacher put his own life on the line to stop the carnage as terrified students scrambled in the blood-soaked hallway of a Virginia high school.
Joe Petrucelli, also head coach of the West Potomac girls’ basketball team, has been identified as the teacher who intervened at the height of Wednesday morning’s brutal stabbing attack.
Coach Petrucelli physically restrained the teenage assailant and prevented what many believe could have become a far worse tragedy at the Fairfax County school.
‘West Potomac girls’ basketball coach and special education teacher Joe Petrucelli became a hero, likely saving a life and preventing further harm – despite putting himself in danger,’ the team wrote in a statement.
‘When a knife-wielding student chased another student whom he had already stabbed, Coach Joe intervened in the hallway, physically restraining the assailant.’
By the time police arrived, the suspect was subdued, the knife had been secured and the high school community already reeling from one violent act was spared from additional bloodshed.
‘For him to intervene in that way, it’s beyond heroism,’ said Mateo Dunne, the Mount Vernon District Representative on the Fairfax County School Board.
But Dunne quickly added: ‘It’s the kind of heroism that should never fall on the shoulders of our teachers.’
It was around 9:40am when three teenage boys became locked in a vicious fight.
Punches flew as dozens of students looked on in the crowded West Potomac hallway.
Then, in a dramatic escalation, one of the boys pulled out a knife.
The victim, just 16-years-old, was stabbed and left bleeding profusely as the 15-year-old attacker continued his violent pursuit, chasing the wounded boy through the corridor.
The shocking scene was captured in grainy, shaky videos by students who instinctively reached for their cellphones.
Blood could be seen smeared across the hallway floor while the injured teen’s shirt was drenched in blood as he collapsed to the floor.
As panic and screams filled the building, it was Coach Petrucelli who stepped into the fray, unarmed and untrained for such violence, but unwilling to stand by.
With the help of Tracey Vasques, a veteran health and physical education teacher, Petrucelli managed not only to physically restrain the suspect but to de-escalate the situation.
Vasques reportedly spoke to the knife-wielding teen, calming him and convincing him to drop the weapon.
Once disarmed, Vasques secured the knife by stepping on it until authorities arrived.
‘This should not be the expectation for teachers,’ Dunne said. ‘We need to ask them to just focus on their core mission, and instead bring in security personnel who can provide the law and order and allow teachers to do their core job.’
The incident has reignited fierce debate over school security in Fairfax County.
Dunne is now calling for an immediate security overhaul at West Potomac, beginning with the addition of more armed school resource officers (SROs).
‘The national recommended ratio is one SRO per thousand students,’ Dunne said. ‘West Potomac has 3,000 students. We should have three school resource officers — not one.’
In addition to more SROs, Dunne is also demanding the hiring of unarmed security assistants – staff whose job would be to monitor hallways, enforce rules, and intervene when misconduct arises.
He emphasized that these steps should not be delayed by budget debates or bureaucratic red tape.
‘We need security now. Not yesterday, not planning for five years from now. Safety and security have to happen today,’ he warned. ‘I’m calling on the superintendent to safeguard our students.’
Outside the school on Wednesday, the anger of parents was raw.
Parents who rushed to the scene after word of the stabbing broke out were met with locked doors and silence.
Many said they received no direct communication from the school until long after videos of the bloodied teen began circulating on social media.
‘Why can’t I check my daughter out?’ shouted one furious father, Bill Beal, at Fairfax County Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid during a tense press conference just hours after the attack. ‘That’s all I care about.’
Reid, struggling to calm the crowd, insisted that the school was following law enforcement advice to maintain a ‘Stay Put, Stay Tuned’ protocol until the situation was fully secured. But the fury in the parking lot only grew.
‘I’m mortified,’ said grandmother Cheryl Brewer. ‘I just need to see her and take her home.’
‘They’re not safe,’ said Aellene Hernandez, another parent, holding up gruesome video footage on her phone. ‘I’m horrified my child was anywhere near this.’
Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, himself a West Potomac parent, released a personal statement: ‘These students are so close to the end of the school year, and for many, a graduation. This time for celebration is now marred by this ugly incident. These kids deserved so much better today.’
Wednesday’s attack was described by Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis as an ‘isolated incident.’
He confirmed that the suspect and the victim knew each other and that the third student involved in the initial fight was being questioned but was not facing charges.
Still, the sheer brutality of the scene, a student stabbed nearly to death in front of classmates, his blood staining the floor tiles, has shattered any sense of security at West Potomac.
And though the 16-year-old victim’s condition has been upgraded from critical to stable, the psychological scars left on the student body remain fresh.
‘There’s more than one victim in this,’ Beal told reporters. ‘The people who witnessed it – they’re victims too.’
Superintendent Reid confirmed that Fairfax County Public Schools had only just begun piloting metal detectors at select campuses but West Potomac was not one of them.
The timing of the pilot rollout, coupled with the stunning failure to prevent the attack, has fueled parent outrage.
‘We were putting metal detectors in another school that very morning,’ Reid told reporters, ‘but they weren’t yet at West Potomac.’
While Reid stressed the importance of keeping students on campus with access to counselors and support services after the trauma, many parents weren’t interested in waiting.
Some began checking their children out of school as soon as the building reopened that afternoon.
Dunne’s message was blunt: ‘We can’t let this debate drag on while our children remain vulnerable.’