The Latest: Stabbed school custodian in stable condition

The Latest on the stabbing of a Parker school employee (all times local):

1:55 p.m.

Four public schools in Parker will operate normally Thursday after being closed Wednesday following a stabbing attack on a Parker High School custodian.

Police say the 46-year-old custodian is in stable condition after being stabbed four times in the neck Tuesday evening at Parker High School.

Police say the custodian describer the attacker as about 16 years old and that no suspect has been identified or arrested.

Parker Unified School District Superintendent James Lotts says the district decided to close the four schools Wednesday partly because law enforcement needed to process the crime scene and partly out of safety concerns.

Lotts says the district’s fifth school is located outside of Parker and that it wasn’t closed Wednesday.

12:50 p.m.

Parker police say a custodian is hospitalized in stable condition after being stabbed four times in the neck at Parker High School on her second night on the job.

Sgt. Mike Bailey say police don’t know a motive for the Tuesday evening attack and that a suspect described as a male teenager remains at large.

Bailey says the 56-year-old custodian said the attacker stabbed her outside a classroom immediately after telling her she was wanted by a teacher elsewhere on campus.

The suspect was described as about 16 years old, 5-foot-10 with dark hair and gray eyes and wearing a dark colored, short-sleeved Parker High School t-shirt.

Bailey says surveillance video recorded a person matching that description leaving the campus about two minutes after the stabbing.

9:35 a.m.

Authorities in western Arizona say a teenage suspect is sought in the stabbing of an employee of the high school in Parker.

The Parker Police Department say the employee was hospitalized after being stabbed several times in the neck early Tuesday evening at the school.

The employee’s identity wasn’t released and there’s no immediate word on his or her condition.

Police and Parker Unified School District officials didn’t immediately return calls Wednesday morning, but the Police Department earlier said the suspect as a white male believed to be approximately 16 years old.

The Police Department described the suspect as 5-foot-10 with dark hair and gray eyes and wearing a dark colored, short-sleeved Parker High School t-shirt.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press.