Video footage captured the shocking moment a Texas high school student was pepper sprayed and tasered by cops in the aftermath of a pr...
Video footage captured the shocking moment a Texas high school student was pepper sprayed and tasered by cops in the aftermath of a protest.
The demonstration at Little Elm High School in North Texas took place on Friday morning in support of a sophomore student who had been sexually assaulted on her bus a month ago and had allegedly been disciplined for speaking out.
Local police were dispatched to the scene of the protest where the situation then escalated.
In the video, a male student in a white hoodie is seen being pepper sprayed by an officer in the midst of the chaos.
The officer and another, who had apprehended a student in a black hoodie, pointed their taser guns at the boy in the white top, who then fell to the floor.
Students swarmed around the officers and continued to yell and scream at them as the boy lay unconscious.
A total of four students were reportedly arrested at the school with reports of them as well as others acting 'aggressively' towards police and administrators.
Video footage captured the moment a male student was pepper sprayed and tased in the aftermath of a protest at Little Elm High School in northern Texas on Friday
The student was knocked unconscious after falling to the floor which caused an uproar between other students and the officers
The student was taken to be examined by medics and was then put into a juvenile detention center
Four students were arrested at the school over a protest for a sophomore girl who was sexually assaulted on her bus and was allegedly punished for speaking out about it
Other video footage revealed students being forcefully handcuffed with a girl even being dragged by her hair.
The unconscious student was also seen dragged by police from the scene.
The student received a medical attention before he was taken to a juvenile detention center, according to city spokesperson Erin Mudie.
Following the incident, both parents and students spoke out about the incident and slammed the school for allowing it to happen.
'It was peaceful we were just chanting,' student D'Kenzie Gibbs told Fox 4. 'We weren't looking to get injured.'
Brief footage of the beginning of the protest revealed students gathered in a hallway chanting, with one student holding a sign reading 'Justice for the Victims.'
The school released a statement calling the information about the assaulted student 'inaccurate'
Gibbs said that the situation had been 'peaceful' until the police had arrived.
She had been at the scene when the male student was pepper sprayed by the officers.
'While he pepper sprayed him, he wasn't aiming and it went everywhere so I got pepper sprayed and multiple of my friends did,' Gibbs added.
Parents such as Chandra Weekley had revealed that they were not even made aware of what was happening until their children had texted them.
'It was bad like like I've never seen anything like it,' Weekley told the network.
'We're standing outside and we see helicopters, we see kids are in police cars, we see kids everywhere crying.'
Social media users were angered by the situation due to the school's response to the assault and the protest
Weekley also added that she felt students like her freshman son were no longer 'safe' at the school.
'I don't feel like our kids are safe here. 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, said police initiated the violence rather than the students after viewing the video.
'The police officers are the violence,' Hairston told The 74. 'They are the threat in that video.'
The school staff, however, appear to feel differently. They claim it was the students who had incited the aggressive behavior.
In a statement, the school claimed the protest had not been peaceful and that the student's behavior proved to be a disruption.
'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,' the statement had read.
The district's superintendent Daniel Gallagher said that the school had launched an investigation into the allegations made by the female student.
A video statement was released by Superintendent Daniel Gallagher and Little Elm mayor Curtis Cornelious in response to the incident
However, the investigation was halted after insufficient evidence had been provided of the assault.
Gallagher refuted claims that the student had been punished for coming out about the assault.
A video statement was also released by Gallagher and Little Elm Mayor Curtis Cornelious who revealed that two of the students had been arrested for assaulting officers.
'When a third student attempted to interfere with the arrest, the officer was forced to use pepper spray, and then a taser when the student would not stop advancing toward the officer,' Cornelios said.
'A fourth student spit on an officer, which Texas law deems as an assault.'
Cornelios even claimed that the use of pepper spray and taser guns were 'safe non-lethal methods of subduing someone who is being aggressive or refusing to respond to a request.'
He also added that the students who were arrested will be held accountable through the court system.
Gallagher said that he will be hosting a listening session on November 30 for parents to voice 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.'
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