The Sacramento Bee, January 28, 1995 MELEE ERUPTS AT ENCINA DEPUTIES HALT BRAWL WITH PEPPER SPRAY; STUDENTS ANGERED By Kimberly Moy and Andy Furillo, Bee Staff Writers Sacramento sheriff's deputies used pepper spray Friday to break up a cafeteria fight at Encina High School, sending nine students to the hospital and enraging youths who accused the officers of overreacting. But the Sheriff's Department maintained that the chemical agents were not employed until after students attacked an officer who was separating the brawlers and that the spray was needed to prevent even more serious injuries. More than 50 officers from four law enforcement agencies responded to the 11:15 a.m. melee at the campus of 850 students. Officials said the disturbance, which took place in a cafeteria with 300 students, was quelled by noon. Officials said the incident represented the most serious use of police force on a local high school campus in recent memory. "I can't say we haven't used it, but this was on a pretty grand scale," said sheriff's spokesman John McGinness. "With the number of officers involved, I don't think we've ever done that before." Normally one off-duty sheriff's deputy is deployed on the San Juan Unified district campus, but the security detail was beefed up to four on Friday in response to rumors an off-campus fight the previous day could reignite during school hours. The district employs off-duty deputies to patrol its campuses. Charley Berger, director of the seventh-grade through adult-school division of the San Juan district, said the incident "started out as a fight between two students (and) it then escalated to several groups of students." "The fact that the students did not break up when asked to do so seemed to set a stage for students to feel free to go ahead and engage in disputes they may have had running for quite a period of time," he said. McGinness said that some students "actually assaulted" the deputies, who at that point decided to use the pepper spray. "They had to keep this thing from getting out of control," McGinness said. "If they backed out at that point, there would have been a free-for-all on campus and obviously the potential for some very serious injuries would have been a reality there." McGinness said that "there is always a possibility" when pepper spray is used "that there is going to be an abundance of the chemical agents in the air and that non-involved, innocent parties could feel some of the ill effects." Dozens of students emerged from the campus at 1401 Bell St. after the spraying. Several of them rubbed their reddened eyes, crying in the hallways and embracing each other. Others vehemently cursed the sheriff's deputies, who were backed up by Sacramento and Folsom city police and California Highway Patrol. Many of the students stung by the pepper spray crowded into the administration building, where they were treated by paramedics from the American River Fire Protection District and the private ambulance agency American Medical Response. Nine of the students were transported to UC Davis Medical Center, mostly for inhaling the pepper spray. A hospital spokeswoman said "several" of the students were admitted for further treatment and observation. There were no reports of any use of weapons by students during the fight. No names were released on the five students who were detained because they are juveniles. McGinness said one was held for battery on a peace officer while the others were detained for disturbing the peace and interfering with a peace officer. McGinness said the Sheriff's Department's use-of-force standards call for the application of pepper spray in mass disturbances after verbal commands and control holds fail. He said that while the spray is "uncomfortable, it is temporary, and it should not have lasting consequences on anybody." Some peace officers at Encina also felt the effects of pepper spray Friday, but none required treatment, McGinness said. The campus has been plagued by occasional violence, but it also boasts a model health academy that graduated its first class last year and sent more than 90 percent of its graduates to college. According to students, Friday's fight began in the cafeteria when a female student bumped into a male student who then demanded that she excuse herself. Friends of the two then jumped in, at which point the four sheriff's deputies who were on campus moved in to separate them. Students emotionally questioned the level of force employed by the officers, saying that along with the pepper spray, the deputies struck some of the youths with their batons. "It was an incident between two people - basically, it was a misunderstanding," said Lovey Clayton, an Encina junior. "Pepper spray was not necessary. . . . People were slowly leaving." Robin Williams, a 15-year-old sophomore, said that virtually all of the 300 or so students in the cafeteria when the fight broke out were affected by the pepper spray and that she saw some of them being clubbed. "My friend got a billy club broke over his leg," Williams said. "About three of my friends got beat with billy clubs for no reason, after the fight was over." Sheriff's spokesman McGinness said that deputies kept their batons "at ready" and that they did form a skirmish line. "I can't say they were not used," he said of the batons, "but I believe, and we'll know for certain by Monday, I believe there were no batons used to strike anyone. No one came forward to tell us they were struck with a baton." Rico Connor, 16, a sophomore, said deputies sprayed "the whole crowd... They (sprayed) in all directions." School officials denied that there was any indiscriminate spraying. Dozens of parents rushed to the school to pick up their children. They included Ken Zoglman, who called the deputies' response an "overreaction." "This is bad, this is really bad. This school is trying so hard to get rid of its reputation," Zoglman said. "And what happened? Two kids got in a fight. It got out of hand because of an overreaction. That's not right. It seems like the sheriff came here looking for trouble."