(December 11) VICTORVILLE—A San Bernardino County probation officer pepper-sprayed a 13-year-old junior high school student on December 9 while morning classes were ongoing.
The as-yet unidentified probation officer was on the campus at Hook Junior High on an unrelated matter when the school’s administrators and faculty requested assistance with a student who had become highly agitated.
The request was made of the probation officer because a school resource officer was not available.
The student, described as 5-foot-11 and 210 pounds, had been pulled out of class around 10 a.m. for an undisclosed disciplinary action. The student was not on probation or subject in any way to the probation office’s authority. After deciding to send the student home, school administrators phoned his grandmother, the student’s legal guardian, to inform her of the action being taken against her grandson and request she pick him up. She refused that request and did not answer subsequent calls made to her.
In the meantime, the situation involving the student escalated, according to school officials, involving the student punching a wall and hurling items. The sheriff’s department was summoned. Before deputies arrived, the probation officer was drawn into the matter and a confrontation with the youth ensued.
Fearing the student, who had grown confrontational, was about to become physically combative, the probation officer pepper-sprayed him. The student became enraged and verbally threatened the officer with violence, upon which he was pepper-sprayed once more.
Arriving sheriff’s deputies then handcuffed the youth and took him into custody at 10:44 a.m.  He was booked into juvenile hall on charges of felony resisting as well as obstructing and delaying a peace officer.