5 boys arrested in knife incident

An apparent squabble between two boys over a girl led to a lockdown at a Taylorsville middle school Tuesday.

Several boys were taken into custody by Taylorsville police after one apparently brought a knife to school.

Police arrested a total of five students, including a 15-year-old boy who was booked into juvenile detention for investigation of theft and bringing a dangerous weapon to school. A possible charge of causing a catastrophe was also being considered Tuesday night.

The four other boys are facing various charges, including obstruction. They are all being referred to the juvenile court system. No other weapons were found.

All of Eisenhower Junior High School, 4351 S. Redwood Road, was placed into lockdown for about an hour beginning at 1:40 p.m. after a couple of students told school administrators that two boys had brought a knife and gun into school. The school has about 1,000 students.

The school's principal, Nancy Jadallah, immediately called both the school district and Taylorsville police and the school was put on lockdown, meaning students could not leave their classrooms and no one could enter the school campus.

Granite District and Taylorsville police blocked off all the entrances to the school while other officers went inside to find the two boys.

Ninth-grader Nathan Straight was in the same classroom as one of the boys police were looking for and pulled out of class. He said when the school was put on lockdown, everyone was told to stay in their seats but no one was really told why.

Many students, however, had heard rumors of what was happening and already had an idea, he said. One student even went home earlier in the day, reportedly nervous about what he thought would happen.

Straight said he heard the two boys were arming themselves for a fight with another boy who did not go to the school. One of the armed boys was reportedly dating a girl who used to date the boy from the other school, he said.

"She was playing him," Straight said.

Student Travis Bunkall knows both boys and also said it was a disagreement with another boy over a girl.

"He said he was going to fight this girl's boyfriend," Bunkall said.

But Bunkall believes what the boys really intended to do was defend themselves against the other boy, who reportedly is much bigger, rather than start a fight themselves.

"They didn't seem like the type of kids who could bring weapons to school," he said.