COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The attorney for a woman who was tased this week at a middle school football game in Ohio after she refused to wear a facemask says the school district involved “misapplied the law, and misapplied it haphazardly and violently.”
Alecia Kitts was attending a Logan Middle School game Wednesday as a supporter of Marietta Middle School. She was approached by School Resource Officer Chris Smith and asked to wear a mask. She did not, saying she suffers from asthma. Smith then asked her to leave the stadium, and when Kitts did not, handcuffed her — applying a Taser to her right shoulder area in the process — and escorted her out.
The confrontation was filmed and posted to Facebook, where it went viral Thursday and even caught the attention of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
Kitts’ attorney, Maurice A. Thompson of Columbus, says that the Logan Hocking Local School District was misapplying a state order related to masks at sports events during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Ms. Kitts explained to the policy officer and administrators that she has asthma, but they ignored her,” Thompson said in a statement to NBC4. “Their position was that un-masked asthmatic must leave the stadium, (which) is not consistent with any directive or other law.”
He also said that Kitts was far enough away from spectators not in her family to safely not wear a mask under the state order.
“Ms. Kitts was obviously alone with her children, outdoors, at a distance of much greater than six feet from anyone else. … Thus, she broke no Ohio law, not even the Governor’s own legally-dubious health directives upon which the school relied,” Thompson said.
Logan school and police officials have said that Kitts was asked to leave and then removed as a trespasser when she failed to comply with the officer’s orders.
“She committed no crime and thus committed no ‘criminal trespass,'” Thompson said. “Logan School District totally misapplied the law, and misapplied it haphazardly and violently.”