Parents call on local district to increase safety after student uses pepper spray in fight

CHESTER COUNTY, S.C. — A student appeared to pull out pepper spray and spray it directly at other students during a fight at a Chester County middle school.

Deputies said several students and staff members who were nearby needed medical attention.

Channel 9′s Tina Terry spoke to parents who said their children were just walking down the hall when it all happened. They said pepper spray should have never gotten into the school.

Parents also said they are fed up with fights at the school and that they’re calling on the district to make sure this is a safer place for their children.

In a video, a girl can be seen using pepper spray in a crowd of students at Chester Middle School. Investigators said it happened during a fight that broke out just before dismissal Friday.

“It don’t make sense. It don’t. Like one of those kids could’ve really got hurt,” parent Emerald Chisholm said.

Chisholm said pepper spray hit her daughter right in the face. She said her daughter has asthma and has been out of school and on steroids since it happened.

According to Jackie Gwin, her grandson was heading back to his classroom at the time of the fight.

“He said he had come out of the restroom and said he just saw the big fog,” she said. “He happened to walk into the fog and realized his eyes was burning.”

An incident report said a parent told deputies, “I gave my daughter the mace because she has been being bullied.” The report said the girl was “arrested for two counts of second-degree assault and released to her mother.”

Earlier this month, a fight broke out on a bus carrying students from Chester middle and high schools.

Chisholm said violence is out of control. She and other parents want school leaders to increase safety.

“It’s all about safety -- kids should be safe coming into school,” she said. “Mace, pepper spray, it could be a knife. A child could get stabbed. They need metal detectors.”

According to deputies, the parent who gave the child the pepper spray could also be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The school does have a resource officer. When asked about what they’re doing about the violence, the district said in part,“ the district is currently reviewing the situation, along with evidence-based research, in order to enhance safety of each campus to minimize these events from occurring. The district will continue to cooperate with local law enforcement and emergency management officials to continue improving the safety of the schools.”

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