East Chicago Central High School Student Sliced With Box Cutter In School

CHICAGO (CBS)--Two students were fighting in class at East Chicago Central High School when one pulled out a box cutter and slashed the other on Tuesday.

CBS 2's Charlie De Mar spoke to the injured student Wednesday night.

The teenager who was slashed, Omar Kinnie, is recovering after he received 15 stitches on his side.

The other student, a juvenile, was arrested and charged.

"It was cut this way all the way to right here," Kinnie said, pointing to his injury. "I didn't even know that happened at first because I didn't feel it."

Kinnie, a sophomore, admits his role in a physical fight that broke out on Tuesday.

"I seen blood on my hand," he said.

But the altercation went from fists to blades when the other student slashed him with a box cutter, according to police.

Kinnie said the doctors told him he was lucky to have only suffered minor injuries.

"They told me I got real lucky," he said. "If it went any deeper, I would need surgery. I'd probably still be in the hospital right now."

The school could have done more to prevent the attack, according to Kinnie's mother, Brenda Richmond, who is asking why the teacher who was in the classroom at the time of the attack didn't intervene.

"If you see two kids having an altercation and just jiving or whatever--I felt that at that point something should have been done to cease the problem before it escalates," Richmond said.

Kinnie is taking it slow as he heals from his injuries.

"I'm breathing right now, and I'm not in the hospital," he said. "I'm here with my family, and it makes me happy."

His mom said she's reminding her son to take a valuable lesson from the incident.

"I keep telling him, do you really know what happened to you?" Your life was almost taken," she said.

It's unclear how the student acquired the box cutter.

Calls to the school Wednesday evening were unreturned.