BILLINGS — After nearly five months, investigators are nearly finished with their investigation into the stabbing at Senior High School that left both a teacher and student wounded, according to Billings Police Chief Rich St. John.
The incident happened in mid January and has not resulted in an arrest or criminal charges due to what Chief Rich St. John describes as a challenging case to compile evidence.
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On Thursday, St. John said investigators are making progress and are now waiting on the results of one final search warrant before the department turns the case over to Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito.
"We're waiting for results on one of our search warrants, which indicates it's probably a forensic type return," St. John said. "Once we get that back, it'll be submitted to the county attorney for review."
St. John said the investigation has been complicated by a lack of direct witnesses. While dozens of people were inside the school at the time, no one saw the stabbing, and there were no cameras in the third-floor classroom where the incident happened.
"The evidence that we usually end up finding, videos, eye witnesses, some other circumstantial things have not been there," St. John said.
Despite those challenges, St. John said investigators are nearly finished with their work, and he appreciates the public's patience.
"I think that we are very, very close to being able to wrap our end up," St. John said. "We want to make sure that we get it right."
St. John said Twito's office will decide if charges will be filed and may consider presenting the facts before a coroner's jury, which is similar to a grand jury, for an outside perspective.
“There’s also been a discussion potentially of presenting it to our version of a grand jury," St. John said. "That would be a coroner’s jury that you seat to present the facts and get some fresh eyes on it and see what they think. That, of course, is a decision of the county attorney."
If charges are filed, more details about the stabbing would likely become public.
The stabbing was reported after school hours Jan. 13. Billings Senior was packed with people for a concert, a wrestling dual meet and other after-school events, although the room were the stabbing occured was empty besides the teacher and student.
An initial report from the Billings school district stated that the student had stabbed the teacher, although Billings police later confirmed that both were wounded, and they declined to place blame. Police said no other suspects were involved.
While the case remains unresolved, the incident has added to an already existing push to improve safety for teachers and students in Billings schools, which are in their last week of classes.
Lance Edward, president of the Billings Education Association, said the effort to address school violence was already underway before the stabbing at Senior High.
"This was actually on the burner long before any large-scale incident," Edwards said.
Data from School District 2 shows the problem has been growing for years. In 2016, the district reported 30 incidents of students assaulting teachers. By 2023, that number had jumped to 90 incidents, with 88 percent of those occurring in elementary schools.
"Sometimes really, really traumatic and large scale and sometimes at the elementary level," Edwards said of the incidents.
That's why Edward and the Billings teachers union is working with the district to form a safety committee made up of five teachers and five district members to identify ways to keep teachers safe.
"Everyone will just be involved in some good discussion to make sure that the steps that follow some sort of incident are defined and clear for everybody involved," Edwards said.
Safety improvements have been proposed before, including levies for new cameras and supplies, but recent measures have failed at the ballot box.
Both Edwards and St. John said the new committee is a step in the right direction.
"We're supportive of anything safety-related, obviously, and we'd like to play a role with that if it's appropriate," St. John said.
