Instructor Releases Pepper Spray at School, Sending 6 to Hospital

A Junior ROTC instructor’s attempt to disperse students lingering after an awards ceremony Thursday at Locke High School resulted in 48 students being exposed to pepper spray, six of whom were treated at hospitals, school officials said.

Although authorities said no one was seriously injured, paramedics sent six youngsters to three hospitals after the lunchtime incident.

School officials said the pepper spray was squirted into the air by a new instructor in the South Los Angeles school’s Naval Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps when the students lingered after a bell summoned them to their next class.

The instructor, whom officials declined to identify, was described as a recent Navy retiree in his first year with the school’s Junior ROTC.

“He’s a fine person,” Locke Principal Annie Webb said, but “we certainly don’t condone” his actions.

Webb said Junior ROTC members apparently figured it would be all right to linger after the awards ceremony because of the special nature of Thursday’s meeting.

When students didn’t respond to the class bell, the instructor ordered them to leave. And when they didn’t heed his instructions he warned that he would spray something into the air, authorities said.