ODESSA, TX (KWES) - A brawl at Odessa High School forced a campus police officer to use pepper spray on the students involved.
Mike Adkins, Ector County Independent School District's Public Information Officer, said the fight broke out Tuesday in the cafeteria.
A video of the fight was posted on Facebook and showed the ECISD police officer using pepper spray to diffuse the situation.
Adkins said, in situations like this, police officers use a standard called, use of force continuum.
It provides law enforcement with guidelines as to how much force may be used against a resisting subject in a given situation.
When incidents like this happen, officers first rely on their presence to change behaviors. If that doesn't work, they try to give verbal commands.
If those fail, they can use pepper spray as the officer did in this situation.
As for students that may be unintentional targets of the pepper spray, Adkins suggested not to crowd in on fights and to get away from the brawl as soon as possible.
The students involved in the fight will be disciplined according to ECISD's Code of Conduct.
