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Videos appear to show police using Tasers and pepper spray on high school students during an on-campus protest against sexual assault

Alia Shoaib
Sat, November 20, 2021, 

High school students in Texas staged a walkout over their school's handling of a sexual assault allegation.


Videos show police arriving at the school and appearing to use pepper spray and Tasers on students.


Parents have raised concerns about the use of excessive force on students.

Police in Texas appeared to use Tasers and pepper spray on high-school students who staged a walkout to protest against the administration's handling of a sexual assault allegation.

On Friday, students at Little Elm High School carried out a planned demonstration, which authorities said caused some students to behave in a way that "caused a major disruption."

District officials said that police were called to "calm things down."

Videos posted on social media show police arriving at the school and appearing to use pepper spray and Tasers on students.

In one video, police appear to Taser a student, who can be seen falling to the ground and briefly convulsing before lying still.

As other students approach while shouting, the police officers can be seen shoving them away.

Another student later told NBC 5 that he was also Tasered.

"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,'" junior Kaden Throckmorton told the outlet.

"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."

Later in the video, one of the police officers grabs a female student by her hair and forces her to the ground.

Four students were arrested for assaulting police officers.


Anna de Luna, a mother who was dropping lunch off for her son, told NBC 5 that the scenes inside the school were chaotic.

"There were students being arrested and manhandled on the floor. There were children crying and screaming. People were banging on the doors, police were pushing the children around," De Luna said.

Little Elm's Independent School District posted on their Facebook page that the sexual assault allegations were unfounded and based on a misleading social media post.

Police said in a Facebook statement that the students' demonstration "was a result of a social media post the day before that contained inaccurate information regarding an incident that happened a month ago."

Maria Vaca, who said her daughter was pepper-sprayed during the incident, told local outlet WFAA that she believes there's a culture of inaction and sexual harassment at the school.

"She got pepper-sprayed. Pepper sprayed for something she should stand up for anyway," said Vaca.

"What was the purpose of the walkout? Sexual harassment. They were telling administrators, they were telling counselors, nobody is doing anything about it," she said.

Parents said they would be attending a school board meeting on December 13 to get answers as to why police used non-lethal weapons on students, CBS 11 reported.

A Little Elm police department spokesperson told Insider, via email, "our department reviews all incidents post-event." Any further statements would be published on the department's Facebook page, she said.