How Elgin High principal handled the tragedy

In January 2008, 16-year-old Angel Facio stabbed Elgin High School teacher Carolyn Gilbert. She survived, but was seriously injured. Facio talked recently for the first time about attacking his teacher. Daily Herald Staff Writer Kerry Lester previously wrote a three-part series about Gilbert and her physical and emotional recovery. You can read the 2009 Gilbert series here. Below is some of the paper's earlier coverage of the attack.

You could call it an irony of the worst sort.

Of all things to be doing the morning of Jan. 18, 2008, Elgin High School Principal Dave Smiley was at the school district's central office, learning about weapons prevention and testing hand-held metal detectors with other high school principals.

About 11:15 a.m., Smiley got an urgent call from his secretary. One of his teachers, one of his favorite teachers, had been stabbed by a student.

Not known as a troublemaker, 16-year-old Angel Facio was a kid who, until then, had blended in at Elgin High.

He had average grades, was on the chess team and didn't have a serious discipline record.

#8220;I hadn't heard of this kid, and this is one of the kindest, gentlest persons on our staff. How in the world did this happen?#8221; he asked himself over and over on the short drive back to the school.

For the first hours after the attack, Smiley had to force himself to stop looking for answers and instead spring into action.

#8220;Let's get there first, let's get there safely and assess the situation,#8221; district safety coordinator John Heiderscheidt, who was coordinating the meeting, told him.

Heiderscheidt, Smiley and district spokesman Tony Sanders formulated a plan. Sanders was to handle the news media, Heiderscheidt would roll out the crisis plan put in place by the district.

Smiley was to concentrate on his students and staff.

E-mail and phone call alerts were sent out that afternoon, first informing teachers, then parents, what had happened.

After a three-day post-exam weekend, Smiley on Tuesday held a 6:15 a.m. meeting with his 170 staff members.

#8220;My message on that morning was strictly a focus on that day,#8221; he said.

Smiley came to Elgin High in 1993, just after a gang-related stabbing had occurred in the school's hallway. His mission since then, he said, had been to work on cleaning up the reputation of the school.

Another attack, this time on a teacher, #8220;obviously was a huge step backward. But we needed to get by period by period Tuesday, we needed to get back that day. Once we got through that Tuesday, we were able to take a breath and say, #8216;OK, it's Wednesday.'#8221; he said.

At the time of the attack, Elgin High students were randomly checked for weapons with a hand-held metal detector in six classrooms on a rotating basis twice per month. That spring, U-46 would expand the program to its four other high schools.

Smiley said he believes the attack was a random occurrence, not a reflection on the safety of the school.

#8220;Nothing's really foolproof,#8221; he said. #8220;It's like any type of crime if the criminal is really motivated.#8221;

Moments after the attack, Facio told Associate Principal Alan Flota that the knife was from home and that he had planned to stab someone that day to get attention from his parents.

It was later revealed in court that Patrick McCarthy, Elgin High's chess coach, found Angel's journal a month before the attack. The first entry, dated Sept. 4, 2007, described thoughts of suicide, his parents' fighting and his mother's drug use.

McCarthy encouraged Sinthia Facio to read the journal and get help for her son. She never read the journal until after the Jan. 18 attack.

Sinthia Facio has repeatedly declined to comment on her son's case and has been in and out of court and jail on drug charges herself.

#8220;We had a very, very sick child,#8221; Smiley said. #8220;We were not aware of the level of dysfunction he was experiencing. He hid it well.#8221;

Facio's first semester exams, Smiley said, were outstanding. On the last test, taken minutes before the attack, he earned an A.

Visiting Gilbert's Bloomingdale townhouse shortly after she was released from the hospital, Smiley prepared himself as if he were going to a beating.

#8220;I didn't know where she was emotionally,#8221; he said. But sitting down together at her kitchen table, Smiley said, it was immediately clear that Gilbert wanted, more than anything, to come back and teach.

#8220;I'm sure there are pieces that will never return,#8221; he said. #8220;I mean you're almost murdered at your job; how do you recover from that? But the amazing ability she has to be at the point she is ... she's a great teacher whose kids love her. As principal, that's what you're looking for. I call it the gift.#8221;