At least three young people were treated at a local hospital Thursday when a police officer working the hallways at Jack Robey Junior High School in Pine Bluff Arkansas pepper-sprayed a group of students returning from lunch.
School superintendent Jerry Payne told the Associated Press that the officer used the spray because, in AP’s paraphrase, “students weren’t getting to class quickly enough.”
One mother, a volunteer at the school, says her daughter’s face swelled up as a result of a severe allergic reaction to the spray, requiring her to be hospitalized for several hours.
The Pine Bluff Police Department has issued no statement on the incident, which took place four days ago. A local television station has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the officer’s Use of Force Report.
studentactivism.net 
15 comments
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April 9, 2012 at 7:36 am
Silver Fang
Why do schools insist on treating students like convicts?
April 9, 2012 at 8:13 am
Iris
Silly me, I thought the poloce were in schools to protect the students. Instead, it seems, police are there to hurry along the slackers. Pepper spray for dawdling? The world has lost its collective mind.
April 9, 2012 at 9:17 am
CrimeDime
That’s outrageous.
April 9, 2012 at 2:02 pm
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April 9, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Toby Nixon
Hey Jerry what if I just sprayed you for being an asshole, is that okay?
April 9, 2012 at 3:58 pm
Keri
Surprised he didn’t shoot them!
April 9, 2012 at 4:20 pm
Martha Pinkston Fultz Richkas
In case you haven’t noticed they don’t care about your rights anymore. I frankly don’t think we have any left. We now live in a totalitarian state like communist Russia was years ago.
April 9, 2012 at 8:35 pm
ANTHONY CASTRO JR
TO HEAR THAT AN OFFICER DID ANOTHER ONE OF ITS NORM SHOULDNT SUPRISE PEOPLE, WE SHOULD ALL STAND UP AND MARCH ,UNTIL THEY FIRE THIS LOOSER ……..THEY THINK THEIR ABOVE THE LAW.
April 9, 2012 at 9:11 pm
Jonathan Rice
Sad to hear. It seems like administrators are absolutely incapable of trusting students. If you’re looking for a police state that is abusive and restricts expression, you only have to look at many of America’s schools to find it.
April 9, 2012 at 10:00 pm
Malcolm J. Brenner
When I was a senior at Riverview HS, Sarasota in 1969, during lunch you couldn’t go outside the painted lines on the floor. The next year, of course, you could go to Vietnam. I don’t think much has changed, really, except the cops are more violent and utterly unapologetic.
April 9, 2012 at 10:33 pm
Donna Nichols
Gee, it might help if someone taught some idiot police officers and probalby some administrators that junior high student have a tendency to dawdle between classes. It’s a what they do; as a former junior high teacher, I concocted my own punishment when they did it. I would either go out in the hall and embarrass them and walk them to class holding their hand, or I would ‘escort’ them to their next class. Equally embarrassing. Usually didn’t take much for them to figure out they wanted to be in the room on time. No force needed..just junior high mentality teachers (rude, crude, barbaric and socially maladjusted as the kids..otherwise you don’t survive them).
April 10, 2012 at 4:48 am
Ryan
It’s “loser” not “looser”….did you finish high school??
April 10, 2012 at 10:37 am
Samantha
That POS needs to be arrested and charged with assault and battery. Parents get on it. If it were my child I would be eating them for breakfast. I don’t care if the kids flipped him off or cussed at him. The police HAVE NO RIGHT to do this kind of thing–especially to STUDENTS at school. That jurisdiction belongs to the parents, teachers and administrators. Our DA wants school cops to carry guns and this is the kind of thing that says it should not.
April 10, 2012 at 11:41 am
slt
Another trigger happy wannabe. What a douche bag. Why was rent a cop given pepper spray in the first place?
April 15, 2012 at 12:33 pm
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