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Principal: Student pepper sprayed after refusing to stop fighting

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — Riverwood International Charter School leaders say a resource officer was compelled to pepper spray a student who refused to stop fighting Wednesday morning.

Principal Robert Shaw said the resource officer and several employees were in the cafeteria when the fight broke out between two students at about 11:45 a.m.

A teacher restrained one of the students and pulled him away from the fight.  The student pulled loose from the teacher and jumped back into the fray. Shaw said the student refused to follow instructions to stop fighting. This prompted the resource officer to use his pepper spray to subdue the student.

"Some students that were in the cafeteria went to the clinic because of the residual effects of the pepper spray.  There was an ambulance on campus, but no students were transported," Shaw said in a statement to Channel 2 Action News.