32 students, faculty hospitalized after pepper spray deployed during wild brawl at Florida high school

Over 30 students and faculty members at a Florida high school were hospitalized on Thursday after a school safety officer used pepper spray to break up a chaotic brawl among students. The incident took place at Lake Worth High School, where the officer deployed the irritant to stop the fight but ended up affecting more than three dozen individuals with the burning spray.

The pepper spray led to 32 people being taken to four nearby hospitals for treatment. An additional 10 to 12 individuals requested treatment at the scene but did not require hospitalization, as reported by The Palm Beach Post.

Palm Beach County Fire Rescue responded to the scene of the fight and pepper spray incident, initially estimating that 20 to 30 people were treated and transported to area hospitals. The situation was not fully resolved until around 3 p.m., hours after the fight had begun.

According to school officials, the students involved in the brawl will face disciplinary consequences for their actions. Principal Elena Villani emphasized that physical altercations are a serious violation of the Student Code of Conduct and will not be tolerated on school premises.

The exact cause of the fight and where it occurred on campus remain unclear. Lake Worth High School, located in Palm Beach, has around 2,000 enrolled students and has faced previous incidents of misconduct in the past.

In a separate incident in 2023, an AP course instructor at the school was dismissed after making inappropriate comments about students’ skin tones. The teacher compared different students’ skin colors to types of coffee roasts, which led to his termination.