The Little Rock Police Department is investigating a Tuesday morning fight at Hall High School that resulted in the arrest of at least seven students.
Police say Tony Hawkins, a security officer at the school, called about 9:22 a.m. for police assistance with a fight in the school's cafeteria.
When officers arrived, a large crowd of students was surrounding Hawkins and Braelon Leniear, who also works as a security officer, as the officers tried to separate the fighting students, a police report states. Several students also stood on lunch tables and refused to move out of the way of officers, according to the report.
High school security, school resource officers and coaches separated the students who were fighting in the cafeteria, and the students who were watching the fight were told to leave the room.
As those students were leaving, another group of students purportedly got into a verbal altercation outside the cafeteria and began to push each other with Assistant Principal Tom Noble in the middle of them, the report states. When officers could not separate the students, an officer sprayed a 1/2-second spray of pepper spray toward a juvenile male student and the crowd.
The group dispersed, and the student was located in the hallway, complaining about pepper spray being on his socks, the report states.
Principal Larry Schleicher told officers that the student tried to get back in the fight after he was removed. Schleicher told the student to go to the Noble's office, when the student turned around, said a profanity and tried to get around Schleicher, according to the report. The student then hit the principal in the stomach and went to the hallway, where police took him into custody.
Police said the fighting continued even in Noble's office, where the seven students primarily involved in the fighting were being held.
Quincy Braxton, 18, was charged with disorderly conduct and inciting a riot. He also had a theft by receiving warrant out of the Little Rock Police Department and was transported to the police station for questioning. Braxton was booked into the Pulaski County jail and is being held in lieu of $2,500 bond.
Four juvenile students, 15 to 17 years old, were charged with disorderly conduct and inciting a riot and released to their parents. Another juvenile student, 15, was charged with third-degree battery, disorderly conduct and inciting a riot. That student was released to his sister. Laderrick Conley, 18, was charged with disorderly conduct.
Braxton and another juvenile student were treated for injuries by the school nurse. No other injuries were reported.
Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more on this story.
