|
Students Pepper Sprayed in Johnson H.S. Skirmish
Thursday, May 08, 2008 - 11:08 PM Updated: 06:08 PM
Fights get out of hand at Johnson High School following a celebration. Students got pepper sprayed as campus police try to disperse the crowd. Photo By: Chris Listak
To watch video online please click here to download the latest version of the Flash plugin.
Email a Friend
Reader Reaction
RSS
digg it
Printer Friendly
Mobile Alerts
Sphere IT
Save This Page
Update Friday:
An altercation sends students and police to the hospital. It all happened Thursday night at Johnson High School in Thunderbolt during the Mega Fest.
Students ended up outside after a step team from Savannah State didn't follow the rules and organizers had to shut the show down.
School officials say a fight started between step teams and then police had to take action. Several parents contacted 3 On Your Side, concerned about how the situation was handled.
Education reporter, Randi Hempel, takes their concerns to school leaders.
“I sat down on the curb and I was like first I was sitting down and that's when I laid down, I couldn't even open my eyes.” Says sophomore Jnyse Gray, who was taken to the hospital after police sprayed pepper spray.
Jnyse Gray passed out after police sprayed pepper spray at Johnson High's Mega Fest, after performing in the fashion show. Mom, Stephanie was there to watch, not even thinking she'd be taking her daughter to the hospital.
They say the chaos started when someone picked up a trophy and police pulled out the pepper spray.
“Once you mace, that was it, it created a catastrophe. Everybody just went running, you know trying to get air, trying to get out of there and it caused a major problem.” Says concerned mother, Stephanie Gray.
“They maced everybody so I don't think they handled it the right way at all.” Continues Jynse.
Especially because there were grandparents, children and babies in there.
"They should have found some other way to handle the situation.” Adds Stephanie.
“We have initiated a full investigation to ah not only look into the actions of the officers that were working that detail but also to find out as many facts as we can because there are several versions of what happened, who started it, who's responsible.” Says Chief Ulysses Bryant of the Campus Police Department.
The Grays say school officials need to figure out what the safest way to handle a situation like Thursday nights.
Some parents say their children were told that if they spoke up they couldn't go to prom tonight. School officials deny that.
Thursday:
Campus police responded to a disturbance at Johnson High School just before nine o'clock tonight. Officials say students were on campus for “MegaFest”-- a celebration for 9th graders. It was followed by a step performance—WSAV has been told one group didn't get to perform and that's when a fight broke out.
Our camera on the scene captured some of what was happening shortly before police started using pepper spray – that was followed by a lot of activity and ambulances at the scene.
Bucky Burnsed with the Savannah-Chatham School District says there were no major injuries. A campus police officer did suffer an injury to his arm, but the injury was not serious. The crowd was quickly dispersed and everything is calm tonight at the high school.