Cops CS-Gas Bristol Schoolkids

bristol | policing | news report Tuesday February 26, 2008 08:11 by IMO

Bristol Schools-kids Srayed with CS gas by Bungling Police

Expect to hear more of this, 'cos it's a jaw dropping story: Police sprayed CS gas on a group of school kids in Bristol a few days back and the parents are very, very angry.

Just before half-term at Whitefield, Fishponds, there was a fight between two school girls. As is the case with school fights, it is not long before a crowd of kids had gather round to watch (same thing used to happen when I was at school). The teachers, apparently, are not allowed to wade in and break it up, so they called the police. By now there is about 30 or so school-kids gathered round watching the two girls. All involved were under 15.

So the cops arrived and waded into the centre of the group and proceeded to spray CS gas on the two kids scrapping and on the crowd watching. Before long there were coughing, red-faced kids running all over. The two girls who had been fighting were arrested but were red faced and coughing. The police advised the parents to either wash and leave out for a week their school clothes or throw them away.

What were the police thinking in CS gassing kids? This wasn't the Battle of Seattle, this was a pretty normal scene from school life - not only that, a professor who was asked to look into the effects of CS gas on kids following the Waco siege in the US concluded, "This means that children exposed to the same CS aerosol atmosphere as adults will get higher doses of CS per lung surface area than adults and therefore the toxic effects of a certain CS exposure atmosphere can be more pronounced in children than in adults."

The parents of the gassed kids are angry and going to complain - expect this one to run and run!