School guard pepper sprays students

reply to post by Turq1


My point is that you do not spray pepper spray into a group, let alone a group of 12 year olds. She did her job improperly. Are you really ignorant about pepper spray usage?

After police told students to disperse and students didn't, pepper spray was used so that officers could get to the fight and break it up, Harrington said. Officers sprayed the pepper spray in the air to get the crowd to disperse and not in any students' eyes, Harrington said. Officers are trained to give students at least three verbal warnings to leave before dispersing pepper spray into the air.

Looks like these police officers were actually trained to not do something stupid like spraying pepper spray directly into a crowd. Good on them for doing their job!

Our security officer in question gave no verbal warnings and shot it at the children. She didn't do her job.

source

Pepper spray hurts people, spit doesn't.

While I agree that pepper spray seems excessive, it would depend entirely on the situation. With the chair-throwing fight that guard did the right thing. I would think innocent bystanders would rather get misted by pepper spray than hit by a chair.

I live in an adjacent city to Norfolk (Virginia Beach). Some of the neighborhoods that feed into both of the middle schools in the op article- (Blair and Lafeyette-Winona MS) are some pretty tough neighborhoods. (read- places not to go if you have no business). With that said who knows how far that fight could have escalated.

What about the safety of the school guard? Some of these kids don't stop even after trying to break them up. School officials are putting their own safety at risk! There are teachers who have tried to break-up fights who end up losing weeks of work because they put their backs out trying to separate fighting students. Some students even turn on the school official!

Some students are out for blood! When their peers are standing around watching a fight like it's entertainment, these students are encouraged to do a beat down. Girl fights are even worse!!! Guys will eventually back off but girls, they're still swinging their arms while school officials are restraining them.

There's way to much violence in schools today. Maybe if pepper spray was used more often, students would get the point that fighting is not acceptable. A lot of these "kids" are massive compared to some teachers. We're not talking about elementary kids here. These kids can cause serious harm to both the student and the school official.

reply to post by Evolutionsend


I think your attitude is part of the problem. There were multiple kids, some using chairs, which gave the security guard limited choice in actions. The guard could not use too much force against 12-year olds but also could not spend too much time on each individual as there was a chance of getting a chair on the back of the head.

I think the use of pepper spray was a good option. I do not feel sorry for any of the kids involved - a lot of 12-year olds nowadays have been badly raised and have no respect for authority, they are rude and arrogant when they are safely in their group and then complain and cry to their parents when something like this happens after they had been involved in a mass fight.

Please don't criticise the security guard, it just makes you look small. The kids and, more precisely, society at large is at fault for all the politically correct laws that have been put in place whereby unruly kids cannot be disciplined anymore. It's ridiculous that kids cannot be punished in any meaningful way anymore due to 'soft' parental control.

Yes, there has been abuse in the past but the answer to that is not to go so soft that kids walk around thinking and acting that they can do anything they want and there are no consequences.

The pepper spray use was ok and should be applauded and supported by the parents and the school principal. There have to be some consequences for this sort of behaviour......the kids will not want to be sprayed again and it will therefore be a good deterrent in the future.

Asking this to some people is interesting. Some people, you'd seriously think that "as long as it makes the little punks follow the rules", we should be using pepper-spray and/or rubber bullets on tantruming kindergarteners.

Originally posted by Evolutionsend
reply to post by GodefroydeBouillon

 

I remember back to my high school experience, when a 200lb high school student went on a rampage throwing copying machines and office equipment. One of our teachers, walked up to him, put him in a full nelson, and dropped him without hurting him. He was of course our wrestling coach as well. If you can't take an inexperienced young person down hand to hand then you are a danger as a security guard.

You are okay with a teacher using a combat technique on a minor that applies pressure to the neck, but not okay with pepper spray? (a move that is illegal in amateur wrestling)

Whether is it pepper spray or pressure applied to the neck, either can be a harm to the students.

There is not an easy solution to people's out of control children.

Ridiculous. I went to a ghetto school where there were multiple fights EVERY day (no exaggeration).... and the school never had to use pepper spray. They weren't even equipped with pepper spray lol. Pull the kids off one another and its over.

reply to post by BlueBanshee


I'm fine with that in the situation I mentioned. When a school wall shakes because a student threw a big xerox machine into it, you can see why he used a full nelson on him. It didn't hurt him, but it did take control of the situation. If they had pepper sprayed him, he would've flailed around and hurt someone. A full nelson isn't illegal because of the neck pressure, it's illegal because the only way to get out of it can injure your neck. If you use it right, the person can't get out at all, and no pressure is put on their neck.

If the children were out of control, and refused to cooperate after warnings were given (they were never given), then remove the students and put them somewhere so that they can cool off.

reply to post by Evolutionsend


Thanks for answering my question and clarifying a bit for me.
If it is done right is key. But the potential is there for someone not knowing what they are doing to cause damage. So it really does depends on the situation.
I've been put into a neck crank and I have also been pepper sprayed, neither is pleasant. I actually pepper sprayed myself by accident, lol.
I do agree if the lady was supposed to give warning, she should have followed the policy.
All these kids fighting in school maybe they should have anger management for them. Too much anger.