Cobb County school police are investigating a school resource officer’s use of pepper spray Friday to break up a fight between two girls. The spray also hit other students who watched the fracas.
The school district’s police chief said he believes the officer’s actions were justified, but added an investigation is ongoing. The principal at Floyd Middle School, where the incident occurred, wrote a letter to parents that said in part, “the students did not adhere to staff intervention and verbal commands to stop. As a result of the pepper spray release, some students experienced eye irritation and were examined further.”
The father of one girl who was inadvertently pepper sprayed in the mouth called the officer’s actions “appalling” and said the principal’s letter “added insult to injury.” He wants the officer and the principal to resign.
“I find it appalling to use chemical weapons against children at a middle school,” said the parent, Scott McDonald.
McDonald’s daughter, Meagan, a 13-year-old eighth-grader, returned to Floyd Middle School for classes Monday.
The officer's actions come amid increased scrutiny of school resource officers after an incident last month where a sheriff's deputy in South Carolina dragged a female student from a classroom. Metro Atlanta's larger school districts have added officers in recent years, largely to deal with potential threats from an intruder. A 2013 Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found area school districts have hired several dozen officers who were sanctioned by the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council.
Faculty use of pepper spray on students has been rare. In August 2014, an Atlanta school district bus driver used pepper spray on students to break a fight. Ten students were hospitalized and released later that day.
In Friday’s incident, two girls were fighting in a hallway during a break between classes, and some teachers and administrators could not break it up, Cobb school district police chief Ron Storey said Monday. A female school resource officer came in the hallway and directed her pepper spray at the girls.
Cobb officials said they called paramedics to treat everyone pepper sprayed, and no one was seriously harmed. McDonald disputed Cobb’s claim that they first contacted paramedics.
Storey said he understood the McDonald family’s concerns about the pepper spray, but believes it stopped the fight from escalating and other students from being seriously harmed.
“In some circumstances, you are justified” in using pepper spray, Storey said in an interview.
Storey said the district’s investigation will include reviewing video from hallway cameras.
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