A brawl at a high school in Louisiana was captured on video, but parents are more upset that a school officer used pepper spray to break up the fight.
The video appeared to show a large group of students watching and recording as two girls began throwing punches at each other at the Magnolia School of Excellence in Shreveport on Monday.
A school resource officer reportedly used pepper spray to break up the crowd.
The video was posted to TikTok, and the description read simply, “Moments before disaster.” KSLA-TV published a longer version of the video that showed the school officer and children complaining about the pepper spray.
KSLA-TV reported that parents had reached out to express their anger that pepper spray had been used on students. They said that some of their children were experiencing side effects from getting sprayed in the incident.
On Tuesday, the school released a statement that characterized the brawl as a fight between two students and only confirmed that the officer had employed pepper spray.
“Magnolia School of Excellence prides itself on creating a safe environment conducive to learning and building strong minds and good hearts. As part of our safety plan, we have a Shreveport Police Officer on campus to maintain a safe learning environment,” the statement read.
“During an altercation between two students yesterday, the officer on duty made the decision to legally deploy pepper spray to disperse the crowd,” it ended.
In 2018, the Caddo Parish School Board voted to extend the charter at Magnolia School of Excellence despite the school receiving a “D” grade from the Louisiana Department of Education in 2016 and then receiving an “F” grade in November of 2017.
One of the school board members said they voted to continue the charter because the school accepted children with behavioral issues.
Magnolia is a tuition-free charter school for students between grades 6 and 12. The school serves about 1,200 students.
Here’s more about the incident:
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