Classmates of New York teen become latest pepper-spray targets

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Pepper spray seems to have become today’s argument-ender of choice. Police have turned it on Occupy protesters, a Black Friday shopper sprayed her competitors with it, and now a 14-year-old student at a Harlem high school has used pepper spray on her classmates. The Tuesday incident forced eight of them to seek treatment at a local hospital.

Police issued a summons to the student who allegedly blasted her classmates with the chemical compound, according to the New York Daily News. Pepper spray is typically used for crowd control or self-defense, and causes tears, pain and sometimes temporary blindness.

The incident Tuesday afternoon occurred in a classroom of the Academy for Social Action where, the Daily News notes, just 73% of students have said they feel safe in the school’s hallways and bathrooms, according to the city’s 2011 school environment survey.

Education officials are investigating the incident.

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-- Geraldine Baum in New York