By Lori Ehde
A 17-year-old Luverne girl faces assault charges and possible school expulsion following a Wednesday night stabbing in the high school parking lot.
Sarah Elizabeth Smook was charged Friday in Rock County District Court with two counts of second degree assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of fifth degree assault.
The victim of the assault, 17-year-old Danielle Cook, received stitches in Luverne Community Hospital for a one-inch-long cut in her stomach.
According to friends of both Smook and Cook, the dispute started several weeks before Wednesday's assault.
In interviewing the two girls and their respective friends, they said things heated up when Smook was seen riding around with Dava Stickling's supposed boyfriend.
According to witness statements, Cook, Stickling and their friends harassed and threatened Smook. Cook's friends say Smook at one time responded by punching one of their friends, Sandy Gertz.
That, they say, is why they decided to "scare" Smook when she got off work at Jubilee Foods Wednesday, Jan. 2.
In her statement to police, Smook said before school that day, "Danielle Cook came to me and told me that I wouldn't get away with hitting her friends. Then she told me to have a good night at work, so I knew to expect her that night.
"When I got home from school, I was scared about what might happen after work, so I put a kitchen knife in my coat. I didn't know what I was going to do with it, so I left my coat at home."
She said when she got home from work that night, the harassing phone calls started, and that Cook and her friends drove repeatedly past her house on North East Park Street honking their horn.
She said her friend Leslie Bauer came over and suggested they talk with Cook and her friends. When they drove to the school parking lot, Cook and her friends followed.
"I could hear them yelling at me to get out of the car so they could beat me up," Smook wrote in her statement. She was wearing the coat with the steak knife in the pocket, and her statement is unclear about what prompted the stabbing.
"I couldn't believe I had done it," she wrote. "I didn't want it to happen ...I am sorry it happened, but I don't know what to do."
Cook said in her statement that Smook "pushed/held my hands up with her left arm and stabbed with her right ... I also did not physically touch her before she did this. I never saw the knife."
Cook also wrote in her statement that the confrontation had been brewing for some time. "I admit that I said I was going to 'beat her up' and my friend did, too. However, I said it to scare her, and I was never going to fight."
She said Stickling drove her home to her parents before going to the hospital.
Law enforcement was called to Luverne Community Hospital at 10 p.m., and Smook was arrested in her home at 11 p.m. The seven-inch steak knife was taken as evidence.
Assault with a dangerous weapon is a felony. Since Smook is still a juvenile, her case will be handled as a delinquency petition in Rock County District Court.
According to Luverne High School Principal Gary Fisher, Smook was suspended for five days, starting Thursday, according to the school's weapons policy.
The fifth day was Wednesday, so she was scheduled to appear Wednesday night before the board. Based on the outcome of that meeting, the board was to decide further action, possibly expulsion.
Superintendent Vince Schaefer said regardless of the outcome of Wednesday's meeting (unknown at press time), he said the district will investigate the incident.
"We're going to interview students and try to get to the root of this bullying and harassment issue," he said Wednesday afternoon.
He said a message will be sent to students to turn to the school for help before things escalate to violence.
"We're very disappointed we weren't informed of this ahead of time," he said. "To our knowledge, none of the administrators knew about it."