Middle school fight ends with police using pepper spray, Pines officials say
A lunchtime fistfight at a middle school led police to pepper spray one student, according to the Pembroke Pines Police Department.
Officers found two students having a “physical altercation” in the Silver Trail Middle School cafeteria on Friday, March 6, the department announced in an Instagram post.
The scuffle — which took place around 11 a.m. — “appear(ed) to involve a past conflict between” the students, who knew each other previously, PPPD spokesperson Amanda Conwell told the Pembroke Pines News on March 9.
It took several school administrators, a school security guard and a School Resource Officer to break up the fight, police said.
When one student proved difficult to control, the SRO used a “department-issued chemical agent to stop the altercation,” reads the March 6 post.
“The device used was an OC/CS chemical agent, which can be referred to as a pepper spray,” Conwell told the Pembroke Pines News.
Police added that no injuries were reported and that students near the fight — and the fumes — were tended to by Pembroke Pines Fire Rescue personnel on scene.
Both students, who police did not identify, are being charged with battery, officials said.
Hours after the fight, concerned parents and students took to social media to debate whether using pepper spray was warranted.
“I wish I could accept this statement, but my sixth grader was present and contests this version of events,” Sarah Lima wrote on Instagram. “I believe more transparency needs [to] be provided here. There were a lot of kids deeply affected by the pepper spray, most of whom were not even involved.”
“Was the Pepper Spray a needed resource?” commented Ruzalis Otero, a South Florida cosmetologist. “The way my 6th grader explained it leaves me with questions and concerns.”
Others, like former SRO Kenny Griffin, believe its use might have been justified.
“When I took action as a Pines SRO, I handcuffed a student who kept striking out at teachers. I was criticized by the principal for taking action,” he wrote under PPPD’s Facebook post about the incident.
But for parents such as Alia Fons-Scheyd, clarity on the March 6 fight details — and if it was consistent with PPPD’s pepper spray usage policies — is in order.
“My daughter attends this school and we had to pick her up early [Friday] after this,” she commented on Facebook. “What are the rules around when an SRO can use a department-issued chemical agent? Can this child please be expelled? A lot of the kids are scared.”
This story was originally published March 9, 2026 at 4:40 PM.
