B.D. was a 17-year-old student at Birmingham, Alabama’s Woodlawn High School when a campus police officer sprayed her in the face with Freeze +P, a mix of pepper spray and tear gas that left her eyes swollen for three days and produced welts on her face that lasted for a week and a half. Instead of being offered medical assistance, she was handcuffed and driven to court — with the car windows rolled up and the air conditioning off. Her offense: arguing with and cursing at teachers and administrators.
“Being maced caused me a lot of emotional distress, a lot of depression, a lot of missed days of school, even hair loss,” B.D. told ThinkProgress, keeping her full name private as she did in court. “Think about what it’s like to be 17 and going to school with a wig on. It really took a toll on me. I was a kid, and I didn’t know that what we were going through was unconstitutional.”
This week, a judge in Birmingham, Alabama sided with B.D. and other former Birmingham high school students who for several years have been sprayed with Freeze +P when they were only showing what the court dubbed “challenging but normal adolescent behavior.”
U.S. District Court Judge Abdul Kallon said the police used unconstitutional excessive force against B.D. and other students in the district by spraying them when they were already restrained and posed no danger to anyone. “Wiser, more level-headed adults have responded and have successfully utilized deescalation tactics that are far less violent than those at issue here,” said his ruling, adding that he was “profoundly disturbed” by the Birmingham officers’ behavior. However, they did not rule to stop the practice going forward, saying that police needed to reserve the right to use the spray against truly violent students. Instead, the court ordered police and civil rights advocates to work together to develop a training plan for officers, due in mid-November.
I didn’t know that what we were going through was unconstitutional.
B.D., who is now a parent herself, said she feels vindicated by the ruling, which came after a legal battle that dragged on for five years. “I feel it’s not all in vain,” she said. “I have something to show for all my heartache. I’m just happy there will not be any more of what we went through, and that kids can go to school knowing the people that are there to protect them are really going to protect them.”
Between 2006 and 2011, police repeatedly sprayed students with the chemical Freeze +P, for infractions as minor as back-talking and challenging authority. The officers then failed to follow legal requirements to decontaminate the students after spraying them, instead leaving them to suffer the painful and debilitating effects of the chemicals as they dissipated. Police used chemical spray in 110 incidents in which about 300 students were sprayed, and more than 1,000 others were exposed to the spray. Nearly every student sprayed was African American.
Another plaintiff, who went by her initials K.B. in court, was a 10th-grader in a Birmingham high school and five months pregnant at the time of the incident. She testified that she was walking to class in tears after a boy made inappropriate sexual comments. After being told to calm down by a police officer, K.B. was sprayed in the face and handcuffed. “It felt like somebody cut my face up and poured hot sauce in,” she told the court. She was awarded $10,000 in damages. Five other injured students were also awarded thousands of dollars by the court.
It felt like somebody cut my face up and poured hot sauce in.
The Southern Poverty Law Center sought not only monetary damages for their six student plaintiffs, but also brought a class action lawsuit on behalf of all current and future Birmingham students to change school policy around police use of force.
“These six students stood up on behalf of thousands who will come after them, who now have the hope of going to school without fear of being subjected to mace for doing what normal teenagers do, which is sometimes engage in misconduct,” said Ebony Howard, an attorney with the South Poverty Law Center. Howard told reporters Thursday that the ruling will send a strong message both to the police and other school districts: “The use of this weapon should be so rare that it almost never happens. And you cannot allow [police officers] to go into school districts without appropriate guidance on how to interact with children.”
The court also ordered schools to implement procedures for helping the students they do spray, such as allowing them to immediately shower, change their clothes, and sit in front of a fan.
Birmingham police have hinted that they may appeal the ruling, saying that “all legal options are on the table.”