‘I’m glad somebody stopped it,’ student speaks out after fight

GOSNELL, Ark. (KAIT) - KAIT obtained a new video of the fight at Gosnell High School, ending in one student being tased.

Ava Anderson said that two days later, she was still in shock from the incident.

Anderson’s family said they are relieved that action was taken during the altercation.

An investigation is still underway as leaders of the Gosnell School District try to understand how a fight led to a student being tased.

Monterria Hancock was tased on March 14 by a Gosnell police officer while he was trying to end a fight between Hancock and Ava Anderson.

RELATED: STUDENT TASED BY POLICE DURING FIGHT

Hancock’s family disagreed with the use of force.

“When I seen the footage and I seen how the officer was the one actually doing all that nonsense and just being so excessive and forceful with her, it just took me to a whole different level,” said Natasha King, Hancock’s mother, in a Wednesday interview.

Anderson and her family said something needed to be done to stop the fight.

“I’m glad somebody stopped it, because if they wouldn’t have stopped it, it probably would have been more damage than there was,” said Anderson.

Anderson is a freshman at the high school. She said once she felt people trying to pull her and the other girls apart and heard people telling them to stop, she stopped.

“I seen the officer come and he was trying to stop her and I’m sitting here watching the whole thing,” she said. “As I’m sitting there, I am sitting there like this with my hands against the wall just watching and she was still swinging at me.”

According to the official Gosnell School Handbook; “Any means including physical force may be used to prevent a threatened breach of discipline or to stop a continuing breach of discipline.”

Fighting is the first infraction listed under “Discipline List” in the handbook. It also lists fighting as prohibited at school and local authorities may be called per Arkansas Act 706 of 1997.

In the body camera video provided to KAIT, you can hear the officer telling Hancock, he was just doing his job, after the fight ended.

“I’m sorry I had to tase you. It’s just how it flies, okay,” said the officer.

Anderson said something had to be done to stop the fight, because several girls were fighting her at once.

“They started jumping all over me and I started kicking and punching everywhere I could,” she said.

She says it all began in 2022 when a group of girls started targeting her after she was in a relationship with a male student.

“I would go to the counselor, I would tell her about it. Sometimes I would have to go to Mr. Milligan and ask him to sit in a different class, because it would get so bad where I couldn’t go into that class,” said Anderson.

Anderson is suspended from school for ten days, similar to the punishment others involved in the fight received.

KAIT reached out to the school district again; the leaders did not want to comment further on the subject, other than an investigation is still ongoing.

We attempted to speak with the police chief we have yet to hear back from him.

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