A US school is catching heat after pepper spraying students in a project aimed at educating students on law enforcement.
As part of a class in law and public safety, an instructor made 11th grade students at Barberton High School line up against a wall and sprayed pepper spray, or 'mace', into the students' faces.
A video taken of the exercise makes for uncomfortable viewing as the students' pain and discomfort are obvious. However, the school says that the students were only able to take part if they and their parents consented to it.
"Students were required to have parental permission and consent in order to participate in the voluntary exercise," said Patricia Cleary Barberton City School's superintendent.
In the permission slip, the instructor said the project was "part of our defensive tactics training that we have covered this year."
Cleary said the class instructor is a former police chief. A school resource officer was also present. And the video was shot by a parent who had consented to the assignment.
However, Barberton High has caught flack online from people who found the video unsettling. The instructor is seen walking in front of each student lined up at the wall and spraying them while yelling, "Stop resisting; please comply!" in an effort to role play as a police officer. Some of the teens, aged 16-17, are seen screaming and yelling, "Oh my god!" while they jump and recoil in pain.
An older female voice, presumably the parent who shot the video, is heard laughing and instructing students not to open their mouths.
The video lasts two minutes, during which the students continue to shriek in pain.
It felt like sticking your face into a bonfire,” said Joshua Horvath, 17, a student at the school. According to the Denver Post, students were also zapped with stun guns as part of the criminal science class. “It teaches us what we’re going to be doing in the field,” said Horvath, who wants to be a police officer.
“It’s an excellent program,” said Melody Steinhour who recorded the video of the exercise and is a parent of one of the students. “The philosophy is: if you’re going to carry pepper spray, or you’re going to carry a taser, and use it as a weapon, you need to know what it feels like before you inflict that pain on someone else.”
However, not everyone saw the merit in this exercise.
Don't know how spraying your students w pepper spray is beneficial to what they learned about in the class? https://t.co/Re4BVLH9Hq
— meg sullivan (@bac0n_n_MEGS) 18 May 2017
I knew it was something wrong with people from Barberton when I was in high school https://t.co/bV8Sl4Hz9M
— Coke Dizzle (@Kingg_coke) 20 May 2017
However, some defended the school's programme and insisted that because the students had consented, there was nothing wrong.
@CNN The Barberton police department are some of the best in the business. Theses kids signed up, parents consented. Nobody here is upset.
— Ryan Cornell (@RealRyanCornell) 19 May 2017
Others said the project wasn't new.
people are tripping over this video sooooo hard. but barberton has been doing this for yearrrrrsss https://t.co/wwIsWw4KJy
— grace gallagher (@graciee_zee) 18 May 2017
@ElvisDuranShow Omg, I live here! I graduated at Barberton (13 years ago!!) and I'm pretty sure they did this then (Criminial Justice program)
— Ash (@mizfantastic) 17 May 2017
