A 16-year-old student now faces four counts of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon after a stabbing at Foss High School in Tacoma, Washington, sent four students and a security guard to the hospital, several in critical condition, in a dispute that court documents trace back to a stolen vape pen.

Waleed Emad Essakhi was arrested shortly after the Thursday attack and charged the next day in Pierce County Superior Court, where a judge determined he would be tried as an adult. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf at arraignment. Bail was set at $75,000.

The sequence of events, laid out in court filings and reported by Fox News Digital, paints a picture of a confrontation that escalated from a petty theft to a scene that locked down an entire campus and put teenagers in operating rooms. One victim required emergency surgery to remove a portion of a lung. Another underwent surgery for a deep cut on his arm. None of the victims were armed.

A vape pen, a skatepark, and a knife

Court documents state that Essakhi allegedly stole a vape pen from a fellow student at a skatepark the day before the attack. The next day, Thursday, four of that student's friends approached Essakhi at school in retaliation.

One of the victims told investigators that Essakhi was "egging them on" to fight, slapping his own face as a taunt. Surveillance footage from the school shows the suspect allegedly pulling an object from his pocket before the four students began to fight him. Staff members and a security guard stepped in to break up the brawl, and were caught in the violence.

The New York Post reported that student witnesses corroborated the vape-pen motive, though police had not officially confirmed it at the time. A freshman told a local news outlet: "This one guy, he took somebody's vape pen. And they didn't like that, so they were going to jump him, or they did, I think. And he had a knife, and he shanked four kids and one adult."

That blunt account from a 14- or 15-year-old classmate tells you something about the environment these kids navigate every day.

Critical injuries, a locked-down campus

Tacoma Public Schools said the campus was placed on lockdown at 1:38 p.m. Students were released at 2:45 p.m. The school served as a reunification site for families. Classes and all activities were canceled the following day, and counselors were made available.

AP News reported that five people were taken to hospitals, with four initially in critical condition and one with minor injuries. All of those wounded were either stabbed or cut. The suspect himself was also cut during the altercation.

The district issued a brief statement: "We are grateful for the quick, calm action of our staff and our first responders." Tacoma Police Department spokesperson Shelbie Boyd said the school was secure and the investigation was ongoing.

The rising tide of violent crimes committed by teenagers across the country makes each new incident harder to dismiss as an isolated case. When a 16-year-old allegedly brings a blade to school and puts a classmate in surgery to lose part of a lung, the question isn't whether the system failed, it's how many warnings were missed along the way.

Tried as an adult

Deputy prosecuting attorney Lena Berberich-Eerebout made the state's position clear at the hearing. She told the court:

"While these are just allegations at this time, the allegations are concerning. The state has severe concerns for community safety due to his volatile behavior, and release high bail is appropriate."

The decision to try Essakhi as an adult signals that prosecutors view this as more than a schoolyard scuffle that got out of hand. Four counts of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon carry serious prison time. An omnibus hearing is set for June 1, and a jury trial is scheduled for June 17.

Newsmax reported that the suspect was booked on five counts of first-degree assault, one more than the four counts cited in the court charging documents described by Fox News Digital. The discrepancy may reflect the difference between the initial booking charges and the formal charges filed in Superior Court. Regardless, the scope of the violence is not in dispute.

The security guard who was injured deserves particular attention. That person walked into a knife fight to protect students. School security personnel are often underpaid and underequipped, and incidents like this one raise hard questions about whether districts are doing enough to protect the people they ask to stand between students and danger. The recent indictment of a former NYPD school safety commander for steering an $11 million contract in exchange for personal kickbacks is a reminder that even the money earmarked for school security doesn't always reach the front line.

What the open questions reveal

Several details remain unresolved. Court documents describe Essakhi pulling "an object" from his pocket before the fight began, but the specific weapon has not been publicly identified in the charging documents. Just The News noted that authorities had not clarified how many of the injuries resulted from stabbing versus other causes such as falls during the melee. The school itself acknowledged that "discipline" had not yet been determined, a curious word choice given that the suspect is sitting in custody facing adult felony charges.

The exact injury count also varies by source. Fox News Digital's text reported four students and a security guard were injured, while a video caption in the same coverage referenced at least six. AP News and Newsmax both reported five people hospitalized. The New York Post and Breitbart counted six total, including the suspect's own injuries. The confusion is typical of fast-moving school incidents, but it underscores the chaos that unfolded inside that building.

Essakhi's mother was referenced in the Fox News Digital report, though no statement from her was included. The suspect had apparently transferred to Foss High School from another school, the name of which has not been disclosed.

Violence in and around schools continues to claim victims at an alarming pace. A Loyola Chicago student was fatally shot near campus in a separate case that remains unsolved, and two missing teenagers were found shot dead on a road in Jackson, Mississippi. Each case carries its own facts, but the pattern is unmistakable: young people are paying the price for a culture that has lost its grip on consequences.

A system that keeps asking the same questions

A ninth-grader at Foss High School summed up the motive in five words, as reported by Breitbart: "They only fought because, over a puff." A puff of vapor from a device that shouldn't have been in a teenager's hands in the first place. A stolen vape pen led to a group confrontation, which led to a blade, which led to a collapsed lung, surgeries, a lockdown, and a 16-year-old facing adult felony charges.

Every link in that chain represents a failure, of supervision, of discipline, of the basic expectation that a public high school is a safe place to send your kid. The staff and security guard who intervened showed courage. The district's counselors will do what they can. But counselors arrive after the damage is done.

Parents in Tacoma sent their children to school Thursday morning and spent the afternoon waiting at a reunification site. They deserve answers about how a student allegedly walked into a school building armed, how a petty dispute escalated to near-fatal violence, and what the district plans to do, concretely, to make sure it doesn't happen again.

When a stolen vape pen ends with a teenager losing part of a lung, the problem isn't the vape pen. It's a system that has forgotten that discipline, order, and accountability aren't optional, they're the bare minimum a school owes every kid who walks through its doors.