Delaware high school student killed in bathroom attack

• The assault happened in a girl's bathroom just after classes began Thursday.
• Two female students were taken to police headquarters for questioning about the assault.
• Counseling services for students and families will be available at the high school in the coming days.

Friends said Amy Inita Joyner-Francis went into the bathroom at Howard High School of Technology around 8 a.m. Thursday. About a half hour later, the 16-year-old was taken out on a stretcher and flown to A.I. duPont Hospital for Children, where she later died.

No one in the state can remember the last time a student was killed inside a Delaware school. Officials from the state Department of Homeland Security, Department of Education, Attorney General's Office nor State Police keep that statistic.

“We know it is happening in the streets,” said the Rev. Sandra Ben, of Praying Ground Community Church in Wilmington. “But now we are talking about violence happening in a place that normally should be a safe haven.”

Police have not released the cause of death for the New Castle girl or any details about what happened inside the restroom. Detectives from the homicide and violent crimes unit interviewed several students considered persons of interest and two female students were taken to police headquarters for further questioning, Wilmington police Chief Bobby Cummings said.

Principal Stanley Spoor said they do not have any reason to believe weapons were used in the attack. School was dismissed late Thursday morning and will resume Friday with a shortened day to provide counseling services for students.

Hundreds of students, friends, neighbors and community activists attended a vigil outside the school Thursday night.

The crowd quietly reflected as prayers were recited; some in the group could be heard quietly sniffling. Toward the back, a ring of high school students looked on and talked quietly.

“I would have never thought something would have happened in the school,” said Raya Cooper, who has two teenage daughters and a son who graduated from Howard.

City Councilman Nnamdi Chukwuocha said fights among young women are not uncommon. Many programs are focused on young, black men in the city, but Chukwuocha said too often, organizations overlook the needs of young women.

"Some of the worst fights I've seen in the community have been with the females," Chukwuocha said. "We need to address the needs of the young women. As of right now, I don't think we're doing that."

STORY: Violence among girls is growing

Shytera Dawkins, who said she was a close friend, remembered Amy as energetic and bubbly; a person who could always put a smile on her face.Friends and classmates, using #RIPAmy, flooded social media with posts about their shock over the sudden death of their classmate.

"All I wanted to do with my friend was walk across the stage and get our diplomas," the 16-year-old said. "And now that dream is taken away because she's not there."

A Thursday night debate among Wilmington’s eight Democratic mayoral candidates hosted by The News Journal and WHYY at Howard High was postponed. The debate’s topic was public safety.

"My heart bleeds for the family," said Mayor Dennis P. Williams at a press conference at the high school. "Things like this shouldn't happen."

Dawkins and Kayla Futrell, also 16, said they talked to Amy Wednesday night and said Amy told them she was going into the bathroom on Thursday to “settle the beef.” Though they did not elaborate about the dispute, they did say it did not involve boys.

“This was like the first time that someone died over a fight,” Dawkins said. “Amy is a good girl who gets good grades who stays out of trouble. For them to fight, it’s just wow, a shocker for everybody.”

Nathaniel Kenyatta, a freshman at Howard High, said he is devastated by the loss of his friend who was easy to talk to. They met in their morning HVAC class, he said.

"She was very open," he said. "I feel bad for the people who have known her for years."

STORY: Wilmington mayoral debate canceled after assault

After the press conference, Cummings said he would not say what happened in the bathroom. He said there were no incidents that he knew of in the days leading up to the assault and Howard is not known as a violent school.

Last year, no violent felonies were reported at the school, though 14 incidents of fighting or disorderly conduct were, according to Department of Education. In the previous four years, there were no violent felonies.

School was just starting when the assault occurred and some students were already in class when the chaos broke out.

Kim Jenkins, of Edgemoor, was visiting a friend near the school when the friend received a text from her daughter, who is a student there.

"She said there was a riot at the school and the cops and ambulance all came," Jenkins said.

Police remained at the high school for hours after the attack.

Attorney General Matt Denn said he mentors a student at Howard every week and was supposed to be at the school on Thursday morning. But he was in Dover for a bill signing with Gov. Jack Markell.

"I've dealt with the details of a couple of dozen homicides, and they're all tragedies," Denn said. "But the brutal beating death of a child, allegedly at the hands of another child, in a school is shocking even to those of us whose daily work involves dealing with the aftermath of violence."

Community members are at a loss for what could have prompted this tragedy. East Side community activist Beverly Bell fought back tears Thursday while talking about Amy.

Though Bell doesn't have children or grandchildren at Howard, the 70-year-old said she feels for the parents and families who are now scared for their own children.

Schools must be a safe place, she said, with hall monitors and administrators ready to take action in situations like Thursday's assault.

"We've gotta have people in place to watch over our children," Bell said, "because when a parent sends a child to school, it's not to get a phone call that their child won't be coming home."

Mahkeib Booker, the founder of Black Lives Matter Wilmington, said tensions are high following the killing. Booker, whose daughter attends Howard High School and sat behind the victim in class, said he and the Wilmington Peacekeepers will host a vigil Friday evening.

“We want to keep the peace going into the weekend,” Booker said. “Because retaliation is always on the table in situations like these.”

Superintendent Victoria Gehrt said the death of the sophomore does not reflect negatively on safety in the school.

The high school enrolls about 935 students in grades 9 through 12, according to the state Department of Education, and offers 13 career programs. ​A school resource officer with the Wilmington Police Department is stationed at the school full time, police said.

News of the tragic death also reached downstate to the Legislature where Sen. Margaret Rose Henry, D-Wilmington East, said on the floor of the Senate: "This morning we learned that the unimaginable happened to another young person in our state. We learned that another precious life, full of promise and wonder, was taken senselessly. And we learned that it happened at school – a place that should be a sanctuary for our students from the madness of the outside world."

She continued to call upon the Senate and the state to "redouble" efforts in school safety to ensure lives lost do not move from the street to schools.

"Today, we pray for this beautiful young soul and her family. We pray for the Howard High School community," Rose Henry said. "And we pray for a City that has lost too many of its young people at the hands of senseless violence." 

An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled the last name of Kayla Futrell. 

Staff writers Karl Baker and Jenna Pizzi contributed to this story.

Contact Brittany Horn at (302) 324-2771 or bhorn@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @brittanyhorn.

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Editor's Note: A previous version of this story misstated the number of violent felonies committed at Howard High. There were none committed in the past 5 years.