A school police officer sustained a broken finger while responding to a fight in which pepper spray was deployed at Henry Clay High School Oct. 20.
A report of the incident, obtained by the Herald-Leader through an open records request, sheds more light on what happened that day as officers tried to gain control at the school.
The school district said previously that two female students who were involved in a physical altercation were arrested, and at least one male student was also involved.
The mother of one student who was charged went before the school board days later, saying she wanted to see video evidence that her son had assaulted an officer.
In late November, Natasha Sanford told the Herald-Leader her son was a sophomore at Henry Clay at the time of the fight and was now enrolled in Fayette County Public Schools online classes.
“He was involved with the pepper spray incident back in October. The officer sprayed him several times in close range. These are kids being treated like adults. The school had no official video footage of what took place. All of the videos came from outside sources,” Sanford said in a statement.
“School is supposed to be a safe haven for our children,” Sanford said. “The officer abused his power and authority. Our males are now being treated like criminals at school. I no longer trust the staff at Henry Clay.”
Sanford said staff members at the school know her son was treated unjustly but will not speak out on his behalf. She said the school district needs to be investigated about how they handle “certain races and males.”
She said she had contacted Superintendent Demetrus Liggins and state education officials.
“They like to send our kids to Martin Luther King Jr. Academy, which is an alternative school, but there are other alternative schools in the FCPS system,” Sanford said. “Also, they have a safe crisis management team. They are supposed to get involved with restraining students. It’s in the FCPS student code of conduct.“
A fight was being brought under control when two male students yelled threats and used their bodies to try to separate an officer from a female student he was trying to detain, according to a Fayette County Public Schools police report on the incident. All student names were redacted in the documents.
The officer said in the report that he “gave loud repetitive commands to move away and used my hands and body to try to gain separation between us“ more than once.
In response, the officer wrote, a student “pushed me in the arms and chest in an assaultive manner.”
He wrote that he then told the student that he was under arrest and tried to “gain physical control in the escort position,” but the student “pulled away” and “began pushing and challenging my attempts to detain him.”
The officer said in the report that a student and “multiple unknown students actively began to assault me.” According to the report, video showed a student grabbed the officer’s arms, pushed him backward and tackled him to the floor.
The officer said the student then “rejoined the group of students that were actively yelling and fighting.”
The officer said he grabbed the student from behind to try to detain him again, and “as I pulled him toward me, we rotated onto a table where I gave commands that he was under arrest.”
The officer said the student rolled off the table, freed himself “and threw a punch toward my face then ran to the fighting crowd again.”
The officer said he saw the student “attempting to engage” with another officer “as she was trying to gain control of” another student.
At that point, the officer said he “deployed a small burst of OC,” or pepper spray, based on the student’s “assault upon me and resisting two attempts to take him into custody.”
A third officer then handcuffed the student and took him into custody.
The Lexington Fire Department treated two people at the scene for exposure, according to the report.
The officer reported that x-rays later showed that his left ring finger was broken, and he had soreness and bruising on his other hand.