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Dec. 16, 2007
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Pepper spray used on unruly students

Foothill and Canyon Springs fights prompt police actions

By BETH WALTON
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Foothill High School students, from left, Dominic Wells, 15; Ivan Garcia, 14; Kiley Roundy, 14; Kayla Guido, 15; and Loni Schoon, 14, talk about being pepper-sprayed by school police.
Photo by Ralph Fountain.

The day after six people were wounded at a school bus stop in northeast Las Vegas, authorities used pepper spray on crowds of students at two Clark County high schools.

"Everyone was on heightened alert, even the students, because there had been so much media attention (on the schools)," said Clark County School Police Lt. Ken Young.

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    • Their being on edge might have caused students to argue and fight, he said.

    But Young doubted there was anything more connecting the fights at Foothill and Canyon Springs high schools with Tuesday's bus stop shootings that wounded four Mojave High School students.

    "It's not abnormal for us to have a fight at a school," he said.

    At Canyon Springs, two miles south of Mojave High, administrators had requested increased security after a group of Hispanic and black students got into an argument before school. During lunch, a crowd of students gathered to watch two students fight outside the school in North Las Vegas.

    After police stopped the fight, the crowd became unruly, threatening officers and refusing to return to class, officials said.

    North Las Vegas police, at the school to provide additional security, used pepper spay on the students after one tried to attack the principal from behind, said Mark Hoyt, spokesman for the Police Department.

    Three students were arrested.

    It was the first time in 31/2 years that pepper spray was used at Canyon Springs, Matthew said. "I think the officers who used pepper spray acted appropriately," he said.

    Paramedics treated students affected by the spray.

    School police also used pepper spray during a fight between students at Foothill High School in Henderson.

    Principal Jeanne Donadio said two students began a fight in the cafeteria during lunch when hundreds of students were present.

    The fight drew a crowd, blocking a police officer attempting to reach the fighting students, Donadio said.

    The officer ordered the crowd to disperse twice, Donadio said. The officer then told students if they didn't move, he was going to use pepper spray.

    One blast of pepper spray was shot into the air, Donadio said. The use of the spray was in accordance with school police procedures, she said.

    It was the first time pepper spray was used at Foothill High School this year, Donadio said.

    But some Foothill students had a different version of what happened. They said school police could have stopped the fight sooner, that officers never warned them that pepper spray was going to be used and that some students were sprayed in the face.

    Loni Schoon, 14, who said she was trapped in the courtyard during the fight, claimed she vomited because of the spray and no one would help her.

    She said she called her mom, who told her to call 911. When she attempted to make that call, a hall monitor yelled at her to hang up the phone and go back to class, she said.

    Schoon missed school Wednesday because she was traumatized by the event. "It made me feel like we were not safe anywhere, not even at school."

    There were hundreds of students who were sprayed and couldn't get treatment for the burning sensation on their skin and eyes, said freshman Kiley Roundy, 14. "All they did was tell us to shut up and move on."

    At least 26 students affected by the spray were treated by the school nurse, Donadio said. If students required additional medical attention parents were called, she added.

    Freshman Ivan Garcia, 14, who acknowledged he was watching the fight, said he was pepper-sprayed in the face as he tried to move away from the altercation. The nurse let Garcia use a sink to wash his face, he said.

    Five parents called school administrators about the use of pepper spay, Donadio said.

    Dani Gutierrez said the school wouldn't return her calls so she wrote a letter to administrators. The mother believes the students were assaulted and that administrators and school police acted inappropriately.

    "I want to see justice," Gutierrez. "I want someone held accountable for the assault that happened not just to my kid, but everyone at the school."

    Though uncommon, Young said there is always the possibility of pepper spay being used any time a crowd of students becomes unruly or blocks access in an emergency.

    There are no specific rules on the use of pepper spray, Young said. Officers use their discretion. Each incident of force, including the use of pepper spray, is recorded by school police, he said.

    "Parents need to remind kids to go the opposite way of a fight, they only add to the problem," he said.

    Review-Journal writer Lisa Kim Bach contributed to this report. Contact reporter Beth Walton at bwalton@reviewjournal. com or (702) 383-0279.

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    Joey Jendras wrote on February 09, 2008 01:21 AM: I was pepper sprayed during that fight.
    I was an innocent bystandered standing to the side of the fight and I was unable to breath and/or see for several minutes after realizing what had just happened.
    I went to the bathroom and washed my own eyes out with about 20 other kids. The school police had NO RIGHT to pepper spray innocent children. How are 2 trained CCSD policeman unable to control a group of 14 and 15 year olds? I just dont understand.


    Stupid old man wrote on December 20, 2007 05:12 PM: I dont know anything at all about the hacky sack deal so I cant speak on that
    It does sound like their might need to be some looking into the situation if they were playing hacky sack 200 ft away and asualted for no reason.
    This is nothing new. and it will take a long time to get right "if it ever will" "I expect it to only worsen"
    For the last 40 years Our schools "all over" has been getting like this. And our children has gotten more rebelious as we parents have been more lax in our ways of life and in our punishments. I see it all around me.
    If My mother at 5 years old had told her father waite a min. when he told her to go collect the eggs she would have woke up some where other than where she was when she said it.
    And selective hearing wasent even herd of by kids that old back then.
    She and all of her brothers and sisters started helping with chores soon as they could carry a stick of wood for the fireplace. They knew what was right and wrong and not to talk back at that age also.
    Im not putting all of the blame on the kids or the parrents. Im sure the campus police might have did what was not exactly right,,, but if the kids had not been doing wrong. the cops would not have even been there.
    I only remember seeing the police at any school I atended maby 4 or 5 times.
    Instead of pepper spray. the teacher placed an oak paddle about 3/4 x 12 x8 inch with a handle that both hands can grasp, on our setting spot. we need to go back to the rules of those days.


    dani wrote on December 19, 2007 06:20 AM: Stupid old man,
    I see your point but the group of kids who were fighting were blocking the door for the kids to EXIT....Your right about teaching our kids and I do and have. How about the kids who were 200 ft. away playing hacky sack and didn't even know what was going on until they were assaulted. Let's see we have a New Years party on the Strip every year..... Metro comes in, breaks up fights and doesn't use pepper spray for those events why at the schoools. Drunks,are way more out of control than those two groups of kids. The reason metro doesn't come in and open fire is because it's not RIGHT to assault innocent people. This isn't my complaint just in regards to my kid, it's all the kids. Like I've said I went thru the CCSD and never once have they ever taken responsibility for anything. It's all covered up and it's not right. People wonder why children go into schools and shoot people. Perfect example... The kids are told they are liars, troubled, un-worthy, and stupid. Lets help our CCSD by maybe meeting in the middle and coming to some kind of resolution with all violence. I don't want to see any child killed whether it's from a gun shot, car wreck, or lung failure do to out of control CCSD police/admin. They were in the wrong. They should have squashed it before it happened. I'm sorry this is how I feel.


    stupid old man wrote on December 18, 2007 07:15 PM: Im sure the school is not telling everything,,, neither is the police or the class mates.
    If you have proof of something go to the magesrtates office and file charges.
    But their is no way the police could have sprayed the class mates if they were not there. you said yourself "The CCSD cops stood by for over 10 minutes before jumping down off a cement wall and opened fire. the innocent kids should have been compleatly out of the room by then.
    If they didn't know better then Ill bet the ones that were sprayed will back up next time. what do you think???


    stupid old man wrote on December 18, 2007 07:07 PM: dani
    You want to bring up my name???
    read the post I just sent.
    And for the rest of you that want to cry about the innocent kids being sprayed for hovering around the fight sceen.
    These are not first graders were talking about,,, Im sure all of them has seen many many fights, Im sure that each and every one of them has been told many times that they are not suppose to be in the area of a fight. Im also sure the doors were not locked and no one made either of them stay in a dangerous room where a fight was going on, they could have left any time, but the ones that were sprayed were not trying to leave, they were right there at the front lines of the fight sceen. Where every one of them knew they were not suppose to be.
    I might be a "stupid old man" BUT I knew all of this when I was in grade school, 40 years ago!!!!! And you do also.
    TEACH YOUR KIDS WHAT IS RIGHT,,, WHAT IS WRONG AND TO OBEY ......... THAT IS ALL THEIR IS TO IT


    stupid old man wrote on December 18, 2007 06:38 PM: YES
    I
    DO
    have
    family
    at
    FHHS
    Foothill student, J.
    HERE WE GO AGAIN
    I WANT YOU TO READ THIS OVER & OVER AGAIN UNTIL IT GETS THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL.
    BETTER YET STICK IT IN YOUR MOUTH,,, THAT SEAMS TO BE THE SOFT SPOT!

    Do you mean to tell all of us that Kiley Roundy a freshman at your school lied when she said "All they did was tell us to shut up and move on."???

    ARE YOU one of those I talked about before??? SELECTIVE HEARING SYNDROME DISORDER IS AS HORRIBLE AS IT IS CONVENIENT.
    [hey this is my school] posted "the school tells us every year not to watch the fights but no one listens" TELL US WHY THEY TELL THAT!!!

    It is a rule AT ALL SCHOOLS that you are to disperse from a fight, a fight that might start, or any other inappropriate activities so that you don't get caught up in it as well.
    IS
    THAT
    NOT
    TRUE?????

    AGAIN,
    MOST KIDS NOWADAYS ARE NOT TAUGHT TO OBEY THE RULES!!

    YOU [Foothill student, J.] stated "I was atleast ten feet away from the fight when I got pushed into it"

    also "a huge group of kids were walking back and forth across the school OBVIOUSLY trying to start the fight. That's when the"
    innocent people left the area and the instigators stayed for the FIGHT, SPRAYING ETC.
    I read where a girl was intentionally sprayed when walking to the bathroom. If thats true the officer should be fired and sued.
    BUT,, the girl and every other
    "innocent" person had no reason to be close enough to the incident to get sprayed. PERIOD!!!!!!
    Im sure another B/R was avalible OR SHE COULD HAVE HELD IT.
    NEXT TIME,, STAND NOT 10, BUT 100 FT AWAY. PEPPER SPRAY DONT USUALLY CARRY THAT FAR EVEN IF YOU GET PUSHED! LESSON FOR THE DAY,
    RULES ARE USUALLY FOR "YOUR" SAFETY,
    OBEY THEM AND YOUR SUPERIORS!!!


    A Foothill Mother wrote on December 18, 2007 04:37 PM: What amazes me that if 100's of students were in fact sprayed like Kiley states above in this article then why were there only 5 parents that called the school to complain? Exactly! What the school did was in fact the right thing to do. Any sane parent would agree. What if there were weapons involved and police couldn't get to the fight? Common sense tells you, when you see cops coming, leave the area before they think you are involved. That is common sense folks! These cops shouldn't EVEN have to tell you to move out of the way. These kids are not babies. From what I have heard from my own children is that none of what is being said happened. They are children and lets face it, todays children are not all the angels we think they are. They are capable of more than kids years ago. Kids today know what they are doing. I do find it funny that the kids listed on that picture are all friends with one another. Imagine that! Read the headline guys...it doesn't say pepper spray unnecessarily used on students...its says pepper spray used on UNRULY students. I'm afraid that even the newspaper doesn't agree with you. And from what I see on these comments, neither do most of these people. So who’s in the wrong here? I for one, am with the school! They get a pat on the back for doing what they had to do before someone got seriously hurt. I'll take a few kids getting red eyes in the comfort of knowing that everyone is safe even if it happened to my own kids.


    dani wrote on December 18, 2007 03:38 PM: AGAIN TO ALL OF YOU IGNORANT PEOPLE THE COPS "DID NOT FORWARN ANYONE" THEY STOOD BY AND ALLOWED THE FIGHT TO PROGRESS AND THEN OPENED FIRE. COUNSELOR YOU HAVE NO IDEA AS YOU WEREN'T THERE AND BY THE WAY I'M GLAD MY TAX DOLLAR PAYS FOR YOU TO BE ON THE CLOCK AND PLAYING ON A COMPUTER DURING YOUR BUSY DAY WHEN YOUR TO BE HELPING OUR CHILDREN AND EDUCATING THEM. ONCE AGAIN THE ADMIN ARE NOT DOING THERE JOB........ CHEERS TO OUR CCSD ADMIN/POLICE GET A REAL JOB AND TRY TO FUNCTION IN THE REAL WORLD....


    dramahater wrote on December 18, 2007 02:59 PM: & dani is writing all this stuff that probably loni told her, well Dani, i hate to break it to you, your not 15, so obvious that you were'nt there. so you need to stop acting like it. &stop telling the school how to do thier work, all your doing is making thier jobs harder than it already is.


    dramahater wrote on December 18, 2007 02:51 PM: okay i too got pepperspray in my eyes and on my skin, but im not going to blame the school for my mistake of not walking away from the fight. People like loni and dani just love drama and its obvious they want attention by calling the newspaper for a stupid reason. I dont think anyone from caynon springs complained about what happened at thier school.

    why cant you guys relize that the police had to do what they had to do & that was to settle down the students.

    they said they were going to spray pepper spray if we didnt move, they shot it in the air not at anyone.


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