Jacksonville FL — Duval County Public Schools says there is no basis for more serious criminal charges from last week's pepper spray incident at Highlands Middle School. The school district says during their investigation it was discovered that a student had a small can of pepper spray for personal use. The district says another student found the spray and though it was body spray and put it all over himself. After this, DCPS says the gym was evacuated and 41 students were taken to hospitals. JFRD said last week that those transported only had minor injuries.
DCPS says despite the major disruption, there was no intention to disrupt the school, and therefore, no basis for more serious charges. They say the student who took the pepper spray was issued a juvenile civil citation. According to the district having pepper spray on campus is prohibited under the student code of conduct and the student who originally had the spray will be disciplined appropriately.
Below is the full statement from DCPS:
“Dear Highlands Middle School Families,
This is Principal Daniels calling from Highlands Middle School. Given the magnitude of the disruption on our campus last Friday and the number of students and families impacted by the dispersion of pepper spray, I want to bring the situation to a close by sharing with you the conclusion of the investigation.
It turns out that one of our students was in possession of a small canister of pepper spray for personal use. While this is not a criminal offense, pepper spray of any quantity on campus is a prohibited item under the code of student conduct. This student will face appropriate disciplinary consequences for bringing a prohibited item on campus.
The pepper spray was dispersed when another student took the pepper spray from the first student’s belongings. Thinking it was body spray, the student who took the canister actually sprayed himself as if he were applying a body fragrance product. Following the dispersion, the gymnasium was evacuated and ultimately 41 students were transported to area hospitals for care. While this was obviously a major disruption, the investigation revealed that there was no intention to disrupt school, and therefore, there is no basis for more serious charges. The student who took the pepper spray was issued a juvenile civil citation.
In our handling of the communication around this situation, we learned that many of you may not have received our telephone calls with updates following the event. If you did not receive our telephone call, please take a moment this week to stop by our office, update your information in focus and make sure we have permission to reach you via telephone.
I hope this helps bring closure to the incident. If you have further questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to contact me at the school. As usual thanks for your continued support of the work being done at Highlands Middle School.”