Student Stabbed During March Over Immigration Bills

A 16-year-old Fairfax County student was stabbed yesterday morning as he marched with other students to protest proposed federal legislation that would crack down on illegal immigrants, police said.

The teenager, a student at Lee High School in Springfield, was treated for injuries that were not life-threatening at Inova Fairfax Hospital and was in stable condition, police and school officials said. Police said a 17-year-old who was not involved in the protest was arrested and charged with malicious wounding.

Officer Richard Henry, a police spokesman, said the stabbing arose from a disagreement between the two teenagers and was not connected to the protest. Police said the 17-year-old was not a student.

"He injected himself into the protest," Henry said, "to continue the dispute" with the victim.

Law enforcement sources said a dispute over a girl led to the attack.

In the past week, hundreds of students in Northern Virginia and some in Maryland have staged walkouts or skipped school to join nationwide protests against proposed laws that would make it a felony to be in the United States illegally and make it a crime to assist illegal immigrants.

In a letter, Fairfax school officials encouraged parents to urge their children to remain in class and, if they want, participate in rallies after school.

"We are all saddened by this attack and hope for the student's rapid recovery," officials wrote in the letter.

"All of us who work with students understand the importance of protecting students by keeping them in school during school hours," officials said in the letter. "At the same time, we recognize individuals' free-speech rights. In many cases today, students demonstrated today on school grounds and remained safe. Those who left campus put themselves in danger."

School officials said students from Lee, Hayfield and Edison high schools, among others, participated in yesterday's demonstration.

Police said the 16-year-old was stabbed just before 11 a.m. as the group marched on South Van Dorn Street near Edison High School in the Franconia area. Friends took the teenager to the Inova Healthplex at Franconia-Springfield, and he was later taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital.