2 arrested, charged after reportedly walking into Pittsburgh high school

PITTSBURGH — Two teens were arrested and charged after Pittsburgh school officials said they walked into a high school Thursday.

According to a spokesperson for Pittsburgh Public Schools, one of the 18-year-old individuals was involved in a brief fight with five students at Taylor Allderdice High School. During the fight, the teen started using pepper spray. The other teen was not involved in the altercation, officials said.

The fight was quickly broken up by school security and staff members.

Both of the 18-year-old individuals were not students at the school. One person told Target 11 one of the teens went to the school because a relative was being bullied by one of the students there and she wanted to confront them.

Channel 11 was sent video of the incident.

“It’s scary, but I’m more scared for the kids,” said Preena Patel. “It’s frustrating. It’s like one other thing for an educator to deal with.”

This comes on the same day interim superintendent Wayne Walters issued a statement about the recent string of violence in Pittsburgh schools:

“Last week was difficult for Pittsburgh Public Schools, but most notably for the two school communities directly impacted by violent events. In addition, we lost a student in a way that was too close to home for all of us, and another student sustained an injury in an incident that remains under review. We remain in a state of grief over the tragic passing of Marquis and will stay focused on supporting his family, the staff of Oliver Citywide Academy and the family of our student injured in last Friday’s incident.

Even while we take this time to grieve, we remain hyper-focused on our core purpose to provide a high-quality education to the students we serve. Simultaneously, we acknowledge that the pandemic has magnified the need to address social and emotional wellness, unfinished learning, and acceleration. In addition, the pandemic has created additional visibility to the many challenges that school districts are facing across the country, as evident by the tragic events last week. We care deeply about the safety and security of our students and staff. Still, we cannot accept a narrative that Pittsburgh Public Schools is a violent place. The tragedies of last week are not who we are and certainly not representative of our district. As we head into the second semester next week, PPS staff will be introduced to a new opportunity to rejuvenate and embrace meaningful change for our students and staff; until then, we request privacy for our school communities during this time.”

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