Salisbury Middle Placed in "Safe in Place" Following School Fight

SALISBURY, Md. - On Friday, Salisbury Middle School in Wicomico County was placed in a "safe in place." Students and faculty were able to roam the halls, and continue with their normal day, just with added supervision. Throughout the day, parents and others came to the school to take their kids home for apparent safety reasons. One parent, Anita Brinson, did not take her child out of school, but wanted to make sure they were safe.  "My child, he has friends and stuff and I wanted to check on them and everything. It's not where the kids are violent to the point where, oh it's unsafe," said Brinson. Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis tells WBOC it was a challenging week for his deputies. Lewis says there were eight-10 fights inside county schools this week. He says on Tuesday, safety officers had to use pepper spray in the cafeteria of Salisbury Middle to break up a fight. "Pepper spray was deployed and I fully support the deputy deploying pepper spray, in the school, in a school environment. She had every right to do it," said Lewis. On Thursday, Lewis tells WBOC that a student had to be flown to a Baltimore hospital for treatment from the result of a fight. Earlier Thursday, WBOC saw several police cars, and a behavioral health van. Wicomico County Superintendent of Schools Donna Hanlin visited Salisbury Middle, however, WBOC's calls to her office for comment went unanswered. The school system released a statement confirming Salisbury Middle school will continue to operate under the safe in place procedure. Safe in place means there is more structure and supervision of students between classes.  Lewis on the other hand, was not as calm about the situation. "Because I am fed up with dealing with these disruptive kids in our schools. They need to be expelled and out of this environment," said Lewis. Lewis and parents, frustrated over the violence within their schools have many unanswered questions.

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