A student from Park City High School in Park City, Utah, is facing 18 criminal charges after releasing bear spray inside the school’s lecture hall last week — the planned location of a TPUSA meeting — which resulted in nearly twenty students and staff members receiving a visit from medical professionals, and one person hospitalized.
The Summit County Attorney’s Office in Utah has filed eighteen criminal charges against the high school student, who allegedly released bear spray inside the lecture hall at Park City High School, sending one individual to the hospital and injuring several others, according to Park Record.
While the student’s motive has not yet been confirmed, several students told Breitbart News that they believe the bear spray incident had been a politically motivated attack, as the suspect is a known “socialist” on campus and the lecture hall had been reserved for a Turning Point USA event on the same day the chemicals had been released.
The TPUSA event entitled, “How to Bridge the Divide with Will Witt from PragerU” was relocated to Ecker Hill Middle School after the bear spray was released in the lecture hall.
The bear spray — which the school district had first reported as pepper spray — had been released inside the lecture hall shortly after school was dismissed, according to Park City School District communications director Melinda Colton.
The student had released what was apparently a large amount of bear spray, as the chemicals traveled down the hallway and into a nearby theater classroom where the school’s drama club had been practicing after school.
Shortly afterwards, students and staff members reported feeling ill, and the school was then evacuated while emergency personnel arrived at the scene. The student later admitted to releasing the bear spray.
The student suspect is now facing one allegation of criminal mischief, which is a second-degree felony, as well as 16 counts of class B misdemeanor counts of assault with a substantial risk of bodily injury, and one class B misdemeanor count of disrupting a meeting, according to KPCW.
“Our students at Turning Point USA are constantly under attack from the left,” said Turning Point USA founder and executive director Charlie Kirk to Breitbart News, “It is harder than ever to be a conservative. Our students are being firebombed, punched in the face, pepper-sprayed — we will not back down or give an inch to the radical left.”
The student’s name has not been released, as the suspect is a minor. According to KPCW, the charges were filed in Summit County Third District Juvenile Court.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.
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