SRO uses Taser on student during Pinellas Park bus circle brawl; girls may face charges

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (WFLA) – It was mayhem at the middle school. Two girls at Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School in Pinellas Park went ballistic on each other.

One ended up getting shocked by a Taser.

Tracey Singleton heard the commotion behind his auto shop and grabbed his cell phone. He heard the officer yell “get on the ground” six to eight times.

One of the young girls involved in the fight lay sprawled out on the sidewalk, face down.

The School Resource Officer slapped on handcuffs as other students walked by, not paying much attention to the drama unfolding in front of them.

This happened as buses were preparing to depart on the west side of the school and hundreds of students mingled nearby.

The two girls traded punches. The SRO tried to break them up.

One of the girls wouldn’t stop fighting and refused orders to stop.

The officer managed to get the pair separated.

“She also threatened the officer himself, to strike him, if he didn’t let her go. So [he] ended up, after giving her multiple commands, ended up deploying a taser against her,” said Sgt. Michael Lynch of the Pinellas Park Police Department.

The second girl slipped away on a bus, but school staff members knew who she was and called her home.

The SRO is popular at the school and has been at Fitzgerald and the high school across the street for many years.

“Once they get it in their head that that’s how they’re gonna be, then certainly it makes for a tough situation. Especially when the SRO is charged with protecting all of the students at the school,” said Sgt. Lynch.

Police released the student the officer deployed the Taser on to her mother. The state attorney’s office will decide if criminal charges will be filed.

The girl who left on the bus could see the same fate.