Charges upgraded for Elgin High School student accused of stabbing teacher

"...a teacher in an adjacent classroom heard Gilbert's screams, saw blood on the floor and shouted at the youth to stop. The student stopped his attack, sat at a desk and put his head down..."

The Backstory, and today, this from the Chicago Tribune:

Charges against a 16-year-old Elgin High School student accused of stabbing a teacher last week have been upgraded to attempted first-degree murder, prosecutors said Tuesday at a hearing in Cook County Juvenile Court.

The youth, who is not being identified because he has been charged as a juvenile, had taken a class last year from teacher Carolyn Gilbert, and on Friday, he asked whether he could wait in her classroom until his bus arrived, prosecutors said.

She said he could and was beginning to turn to some of her work when he ran up behind her, threw a coat over her head and stabbed her in the neck, head and upper body, said Kevin Frey, an assistant state's attorney....

...Gilbert, a family and consumer science teacher, has lost vision in one eye and may lose the eye, officials have said...

Photo from the Daily Herald: Elgin High School teacher lost vision in knife attack

Student attack on teacher 'like out of a horror movie'

This from the Chicago Sun Times:

ELGIN -- A 16-year-old Elgin High School student has been charged with aggravated battery after allegedly stabbing his teacher following semester finals Friday, according to police.

The 16-year-old male has been charged with one count each of aggravated battery with a dangerous weapon and aggravated battery to a person known to be a teacher, both Class 2 felonies, according to a release from Elgin police.

The teen is accused of attacking his 50-year-old female teacher with a knife at the school at 1200 Maroon Drive in the northwest suburb on Friday morning.

The male student entered the teacher's empty first-floor classroom at 11:15 a.m. shortly after the early dismissal of students following semester finals, according to witnesses.

The witnesses, who identified the victim as family and consumer sciences teacher Carolyn Gilbert, said she was stabbed with a steak knife four times in the back of her neck and once near her eye. They said the scene was "like out of a horror movie" and that the student stabbed her with such force that the knife blade broke off.

Tony Sanders, district spokesman, did not say what provoked the attack or if the student was enrolled in any of Gilbert's classes.

Witnesses said that during the attack, a male teacher entered the room and intervened, ending the attack. After which, witnesses said Gilbert cried, "my eye, my eye."

Witnesses said the male teacher restrained the student until the school's police liaison officer and Elgin police arrived. The student was immediately taken into custody by police and transported to the Elgin Police Department...