UHS students banned from recreation center

The school self-imposed the ban after a student sprayed an aerosal can

By COURTNEY ROQUE

The University High School student who sprayed an aerosol chemical in the Fresno State recreation center did so on accident, head of the high school Brad Huff said.

The incident resulted in UHS banning its students from the recreation center for the remainder of the semester.

At about 4 p.m. on Nov. 17, a 14-year-old UHS freshman found the chemical-filled container in a fellow student’s backpack and sprayed it, not knowing what it was, Huff said.

“He immediately turned it off and dropped the thing back into the backpack,” Huff said.

Shortly thereafter, the four UHS students in the immediate area, including the boy who sprayed the chemical, realized they were having trouble breathing, so they gathered their belongings and left the recreation center.

“They thought that whatever it was would dissipate,” Huff said. “They thought it was such a short spray that nobody else would be affected.”

But this particular aerosol product did eventually disperse around the area. Others in the recreation center experienced minor respiratory irritation, so the campus police were called in.

Although campus police confirmed the incident did occur, they declined to comment further because minors were involved.

Huff said after examining surveillance camera photographs, he was immediately able to identify the students.

“They were completely forthcoming,” Huff said of the students who were called into his office for questioning.

The boy who sprayed the aerosol weapon and the girl who was carrying it were both punished with on-campus suspensions, meaning they attended their classes but spent the rest of their free time in the school’s office. Huff said he would rather have students attend class than force them to stay home and fall behind in their schoolwork.

The parents who gave their daughter the aerosol weapon were “made aware of the fact that it’s illegal for a student under the age of 16 to have a product like that,” Huff said.

The high school activities director and class officers decided that students wouldn’t be allowed in the recreation center until the beginning of the spring 2005 semester because of the incident.

Huff said UHS officials and students want to show the university community and the management of the recreation center that they take things like this seriously. He said some think of the high school students as undisciplined teenagers running amok on the campus, which isn’t true.

“We are guests on the university campus, and I try to impress that upon our students,” Huff said. “I am very well aware of the fact that we have to be good neighbors and respectful guests.”

He hopes restricting the use of the recreation center will remind the UHS students that they are in an adult environment and that Fresno State is primarily for the college students who pay to be there.

For the most part, however, he said, he is pleased with the overall behavior of h

is students and the positive impact the high school has had on Fresno State since it opened.

“I think the University High School students behave themselves extremely well,” Huff said. “Have there been occasional miscues on the part of our students? Yes, but they’re minor, and we deal with them very quickly and very effectively.”

The recreation center officials declined to comment about the incident.