High School Fight Tamed with Pepper Spray

A fight broke out in an Overlea, MD high school shortly before the bell rung back in November 2009. While no one is certain why the fight began, it escalated quickly.

Rather than try to enter the melee, officers chose to spray the combatants with pepper spray. The two girls centrally involved in the fight were taken into custody after calm was restored.

Five other students were taken to the local hospital for treatment immediately, and four more followed later. No one was seriously injured and charges are pending.

Controversy over Control
The school involved normally has two school resource officers on the grounds at all times. This morning the officers were not present. From numerous reports, this is a school, which has regular fighting incidents. The availability of pepper spray in this situation clearly prevented a small fight from growing to a major brawl.

While there are those that question the use of pepper spray on minors or in a school setting, it is undeniable that more harm would have come to the students, teachers and facility had the fight not been contained quickly. Lethal force is clearly not an option, nor is it appropriate in this kind of situation.

Crowd control has long been a standard reason for using pepper spray. High school students may not be adults, but they are aware that there are consequences to their actions, and can be expected to be responsible for their choices. A clear violation of both school and societal rules will be met with penalty.

Safety First in our Schools
In the end, the officers acted to defuse a potentially dangerous situation in a manner that affected a minimum of people. The fight was quickly controlled, the combatants removed from the school and extra officers were placed in the school for the rest of the day to ensure it remained calm, which it did.