Pepper spray clears halls at North Dallas high school

by PegNews wire

Pepper spraying usually involves more emotion than this.

Students frantically scrambled for fresh air as an altercation between two female students was broken up with pepper spray at Hillcrest High School in the early afternoon of Tuesday, April 21.

At 12:54PM Dallas Fire-Rescue was called out to 9924 Hillcrest Road for ‘difficulty breathing’. Much to paramedics’ dismay, it turned out to be an incident quite out of the ordinary. A disagreement between two students erupted into sudden violence, and it only escalated from there. With more and more students culminating into an uncontrollable audience, school security officers had little option but to establish control by dosing the students with pepper spray.

What initially seemed to be a reasonable solution, proved to be anything but. As the gases reached the ventilation system, not only did it disperse the immediate crowd; but it also caused those students and faculty in the classrooms to flee for the exits.

When the panic settled, there were a total of five DF-R rescue units assigned to treat 15-20 students for symptoms ranging from difficulty breathing to burning eyes and headaches. Six female students, all between the ages of 15-18, were transported to local hospitals for further evaluation. Three were taken to Dallas Presbyterian and three to Medical City of Dallas in stable condition. DPD was on location and had taken an unspecified number of students, believed to be directly involved, into custody.

Source: Dallas Fire Department