A student protest at Little Elm High School on Friday quickly turned hostile. School officials called the police, and four students are facing charges after being arrested for reportedly assaulting several officers.
One officer was injured during the incident and had to receive medical attention. The officer’s injuries were not disclosed.
The protest was over an alleged sexual assault and the way the district handled the situation.
During the incident, several students inside the school recorded the situation with police on their phones. The video footage captured has some parents worried.
According to footage obtained by NBC DFW, one officer sprayed a student in the face with pepper spray, and multiple students were tased for not following police orders. It is unclear what happened before the footage was captured. Fellow students then rushed towards the officers and created a wall around the targeted student.
Following the above altercations, an officer used their stun gun on a second student that lunged at them. That student spoke with NBC, sharing his side of what took place during the events.
“He pushes me away, he pulls out his taser, and pushes me with the taser, and he’s like, ‘Hey, you need to back off.’ I’m like, ‘He’s not breathing, we need to do something about this.’ And he ends up putting the Taser to my stomach, he Tases me, one of the other officers pushes me on the shoulder, he actually rips my shirt,” said Kaden Throckmorton, a junior at Little Elm High School.
A mother that witnessed the police involvement at the school spoke with NBC News. “It was utter chaos,” mother Anna De Luna stated.
Following the situation, the school district released a statement on Facebook. The post did not provide details and only shared that some students caused a disruption at the school. The demonstration by students was in response “to a social media post the day before that contained inaccurate information regarding an incident that happened a month ago.”
The police department has also responded to the situation, sharing that they will investigate the incident.