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Arizona Parents Tased And Arrested After Trying To Get Into School To Protect Kids During Lockdown
Three parents of students at Arizona's Thompson Ranch Elementary School were arrested after trying to enter the premises during a lockdown.
Two of those parents found themselves tased by police, with one of them needing to be sent to the hospital.
ABC 15 Arizona Reported on the story.
\u201c3 Parents arrested and 2 tased trying to get to their children while there was a man with a weapon on campus in Arizona at Thompson Ranch Elementary.\u201d— \ud83e\udd40_Imposter_\ud83d\udd78\ufe0f (@\ud83e\udd40_Imposter_\ud83d\udd78\ufe0f) 1660435862
The Phoenix area school was forced to go under lockdown on Friday morning after a man, reportedly carrying a gun, was spotted in the vicinity of the school according to the El Mirage Police Department.
While the suspect never managed to enter the school and was later found and arrested, things still became quite heated during the lockdown as the El Mirage Police Department would confirm in a statement posted to their Facebook page.
Parents soon began being notified of the Lockdown from their children within the school, resulting in many of them arriving at the school and even trying to enter the premises.
According to Lt. Jimmy Chavez, all of the parents who arrived on the scene were deeply concerned and wanted to enter the school to ensure their children were all right and protect them.
Something Chavez made clear was strictly against protocol in a lockdown situation.
"During lockdown, it is very important that parents understand that nobody will be allowed on campus."
"Several parents continued with their agitation, they had made several statements that they were going to come on campus to help protect their kids."
"As a parent, I understand that philosophy, however there are procedures law enforcement and school are following."
However, three parents refused to take "no" for an answer, reportedly becoming "confrontational" towards the officers.
All three of these parents were later arrested, and as confirmed in the police department's statement, tasers were deployed on two of the parents resulting in one needing to be transported to the hospital.
According to Chavez, one of the parents involved in the altercation was in possession of a handgun.
Following the incident, and after the school was eventually cleared, Renee Ryon, a spokesperson for the Dysart Unified School District issued a statement, which also emphasized the importance of following protocol during a lockdown.
"It is important to remind our community that anytime a lockdown is in place, nobody can enter or leave the campus."
"This is done in partnership with law enforcement so they can clear each and every part of campus to ensure the safety of all students and staff."
The fear and frustration on the minds of all the parents was understandable, as the lockdown at Thompson Ranch Elementary School came only three months after the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas which resulted in the death of 19 students and two teachers.
The law enforcement response in Uvalde has come under increasing criticism in the months since the tragedy took place, after reports revealed law enforcement on scene disregarded their active-shooter training and took over an hour to confront the gunman.
After the arrest and tasing of the worried parents, several people on the scene didn't seem to think officers in Arizona handled the situation much better than those in Texas.
This includes Drayton Witt, a guardian present at Thompson Ranch during the lockdown with nieces and nephews in the school, expressing his frustrations to ABC 15.
"This is the respect that we get back from the people that we put in control to protect our children."
"We get assaulted, it's ridiculous at this point."
The Twitter community tended to share Witt's outrage at how the police handled the scene, shocked that police would find it necessary to resort to tasing worried parents, with some even providing additional footage of the scene outside the school.
\u201cThis happened yesterday at Thompson Ranch Elementary School in El Mirage, AZ during a lockdown following reports of a suspicious person on campus. When cops tase parents trying to get to their kids, another something is really wrong in our country. https://t.co/hbUuIwUCO1\u201d— Barbara Malmet (@Barbara Malmet) 1660393047
\u201cthis needs to be seen everywhere already , everything the news is putting out is all bs. my brother in blue went to get my sister from the school because of this school armed intruder, the police never said anything to any family about not being able to be on campus.\u201d— Victor \ud83e\uddce\ud83c\udffb (@Victor \ud83e\uddce\ud83c\udffb) 1660497541
\u201cVideo at Thompson Ranch Elementary today as parents tried to talk to police & get to their kids.\n\n2 people were tased, a man & woman. El Mirage PD says a total of 3 parents were arrested. A lt. tells us one person had a gun, which is prohibited on school grounds. @abc15\u201d— Elenee Dao (@Elenee Dao) 1660339631
\u201cHappened in El Mirage, AZ yesterday at Thompson Ranch Elementary smh there was an armed intruder and parents just wanted to go get their kids\u201d— Angel (@Angel) 1660440580
\u201cHey, why de-escalate when you can beat up some scared parents & hospitalize one?! BTW nothing was in the mysterious package. You know why parents charged the school? BECAUSE THEY DON'T TRUST THE COPS\n\n3 parents arrested after elementary school lockdown \nhttps://t.co/SDHAlfkfQ7\u201d— Sally (@Sally) 1660340288
\u201chttps://t.co/HnOYlfufAw\u201d— \ud83e\udd40_Imposter_\ud83d\udd78\ufe0f (@\ud83e\udd40_Imposter_\ud83d\udd78\ufe0f) 1660435862
\u201c@Imposter_Edits Are parents supposed to trust the police after Uvalde? Hell no.\u201d— \ud83e\udd40_Imposter_\ud83d\udd78\ufe0f (@\ud83e\udd40_Imposter_\ud83d\udd78\ufe0f) 1660435862
\u201c@Imposter_Edits There\u2019s so much colossally wrong with all of this. \nControlling an active crime scene and preventing people from entering is ordinarily a good thing to do. But if LE isn\u2019t addressing the active crime then wtf is the point.... SMDH\u201d— \ud83e\udd40_Imposter_\ud83d\udd78\ufe0f (@\ud83e\udd40_Imposter_\ud83d\udd78\ufe0f) 1660435862
A suspicious package was also found on school grounds during the lockdown, but El Mirage police Chief Paul Marzocca confirmed that after being examined by technicians, the package was deemed to be free of explosives and no threat.
The El Mirage Police department reported the suspect is currently "being evaluated by mental health professionals" and "criminal charges are pending".
School was expected to continue "as normal" on Monday at Thompson Ranch following the incident.