A Black high schooler in Texas was pepper-sprayed and tased by police officers following a protest, the Daily Mail reports.
On Friday, a demonstration took place at Little Elm High School in North Texas to stand in solidarity with another student who alleged that she had been sexually assaulted on her bus in October and was disciplined for going public.
According to the footage, a male student in a white hoodie is seen being pepper-sprayed by an officer amid the chaotic scene at the school.
Two officers who apprehended a student aimed their taser guns at the boy in the white top and he fell to the floor.
While the Black student lay unconscious, other students surrounded the officers yelling and screaming at them.
Reportedly, four students were arrested because they were acting “aggressively” towards the administration and the police officers.
Another video surfaced showing a girl being dragged by her hair and other students being forcibly handcuffed. Meanwhile, the unconscious student was also seen dragged by police from the scene.
After the student received medical attention, he was transported to a juvenile detention center, city spokesperson Erin Mudie said.
Both parents and students harshly criticized the administration’s handling of the incident.
“It was peaceful; we were just chanting,” student D'Kenzie Gibbs told Fox 4. "We weren't looking to get injured."
Gibbs, who was at the scene when the male student was pepper-sprayed, said that the protest had been peaceful until the police arrived.
“While he pepper-sprayed him, he wasn't aiming and it went everywhere so I got pepper-sprayed and multiple of my friends did,” he added.
Chandra Weekley, a parent in the school district, said she was not aware of what was happening until she received a text from her child.
'It was bad like I've never seen anything like it,' Weekley said.
“We're standing outside and we see helicopters. We see kids are in police cars. We see kids everywhere crying.” Weekley also said that she doesn’t feel like the school is safe.
'I don't feel like our kids are safe here,” she added. “Like these are kids. What would have made you use that kind of aggressiveness towards kids?"
Andrew Hairston, the director of an advocacy group called Education Justice at Texas Appleseed, claimed that the violence was sparked by the actions of the police after viewing the video.
“The police officers are the violence," Hairston said. ”They are the threat in that video.”
The school issued a statement arguing that the protest was not peaceful and the actions of students caused the demonstration to spiral out of control. “The demonstration was a result of a social media post the day before that contained inaccurate information regarding an incident that happened a month ago," read the statement.
Daniel Gallagher, superintendent of the district, said that the school had launched an investigation into the allegations made by the female student.
On November 30th, Gallagher said that he will be hosting a listening session for parents to express their concerns over the incident.
"What's important for our school and community to understand is that there are appropriate ways to be heard," he added. "But violent acts towards people, property, and physical aggression is something we can't allow in our schools."
