Girl gets stabbed because of her refusal to prom

HARTFORD, Conn. - A 16-year-old girl was
stabbed to death inside a Connecticut high school
Friday, and police took a teenage boy into custody
and are investigating whether the attack stemmed
from her turning down an invitation to be his prom
date.

Emergency responders were called to Jonathan
Law High School in Milford, about an hour's drive
from New York City, around 7:15 a.m.

Staff
members and paramedics performed life-saving
measures on the girl, but she was pronounced
dead shortly before 8 a.m. at Bridgeport Hospital, police said.

A 16-year-old boy was taken into custody. His
name wasn't released because of juvenile offender
laws, said Police Chief Keith Mello.

Investigators are
looking into reports that the boy stabbed the girl
after she declined to be his date for the junior prom,
which had scheduled for Friday night but was postponed because of the stabbing.

Schools Superintendent Elizabeth Feser identified
the victim as Maren Sanchez, a junior who was in
the National Honor Society and engaged in school
activities. Students were released from school early,
and officials were offering counseling services.

Students described an emotional, somewhat
chaotic scene with people crying as police and
paramedics swarmed the school.

Students flocked
to social media sites to try to find out what was
going on. Sarah Golden, a 14-year-old freshman, said she
was sitting in the main lobby with friends Friday
morning when she was startled by several security
guards running down the hall.

Then she heard a
voice on a walkie-talkie say that someone had
been strangled. She was shocked when she learned about the stabbing. "I was trying not to freak out because it was really
scary," Sarah said.

"I just don't believe that
something like that happened at my school. It's
something that seems so unreal." Golden's sister, Rebecca, a 17-year-old senior at the
school, said she saw the victim lying on the floor
surrounded by teachers, some of whom were
crying.

She said she didn't know what was going
on at the time, and teachers directed her away from
the victim. "We are obviously devastated by the loss of one of
our students, Maren Sanchez," Feser, the
superintendent, said at a news conference.

"She
was a 16-year-old junior - vibrant, very, very
involved in Jonathan Law High School, an incredible
contributor, someone who was loved and respected. ...

The Jonathan Law community mourns
greatly the loss of Maren, and our thoughts and
prayers go out to her family." ____