Police put down disturbance at high school

MIAMI (WSVN) -- Several Police units have arrived at Edison Senior High School to break up what they are calling "a disturbance."

At about 11:30 Friday morning, scores of police cars surrounded the school, and police could be seen running around the perimeter of the school. Many were in the middle of making arrests. It remains unclear how many students police arrested and how many individuals were injured.

School Board police, City of Miami Police and Miami-Dade Police all reported to the scene. City of Miami spokesperson Delrish Moss said the situation is under control and officers are investigating into exactly what occurred. "It's no longer an active situation. It's now a crime scene," Moss clarified.

The Interstate 95 northbound exit to Northwest 62 Street, the road that runs right in front of the high school, has been closed to traffic.

Moss said his department first reported to the scene when school board police called for backup in the arrest of several unruly students in an open-air courtyard where students often have lunch. "We did get a emergency call for back up to assist them for several arrests that had been made," he said.

Miami-Dade Schools Commander Charles Hurley said they had to call for backup when a demonstration "became very unruly." He said students started hurling projectiles at them. "Our officers assigned to the school became a target at the school of objects being thrown at them ... books, soda pop, water bottles, milk cartons," he said.

Fire rescue also arrived on the scene but the extent of injuries have yet to be confirmed.

City of Miami Fire Rescue Lt. Ignatius Carroll said some police officers suffered some scrapes and bruises. Several upset students reported that police hit students with batons, slammed some of them to the ground, used tasers, fired pepper spray and left some students bloodied. "You should have seen the way they were doing those children," said one of the witnesses who appeared on the scene as police were making arrests. "What I saw when I came here was people grabbing children by the hair, slamming them on the ground, beating them." Some students even said police punched a pregnant girl in her stomach.

Carroll said none of the students received any life-threatening injuries. Commander Hurly added that his officers did not deploy any tasers.

At one point there were rumors of a shooting, but Carroll quickly put that rumor to rest. "There was no shooting, there was no stabbing," he said.

Two witnesses who said they watched the disturbance unfold said they had been trying to stage a protest against an incident involving a student and-- who the witnesses identified-- as Assistant Principal Javier Perez. They said Perez put a student in a choke-hold Thursday, and they wanted to protest his actions. They said when school police arrived, things went out of control.

John Schuster, spokesperson of the Miami-Dade School Board, reported to the scene and said "classes have returned to normal." He added dismissal will occur, as scheduled, at 2:30 in the afternoon.

He was unable to shed much light on how the riot started, but he said he was aware of the incident that students said inspired their protest. "At this time we are still looking at the cause of it," he said. "There is something that happened yesterday between a student and an administrator and a police officer, and a student attacked a police officer."

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