A baby was pulled out of the midst of a fight at a Pennsylvania kindergarten graduation after a brawl broke out. An unidentified man has been cited with disorderly conduct for allegedly instigating the fracas at the Ben Franklin School kindergarten graduation on Monday.
Video obtained by WJAC from inside the Harrisburg school showed many parents screaming as two men tussled in the back of the room. 'Oh my god! Oh my god!' one woman can be heard screaming. Caught in the middle of the fight was a toddler. A woman rushed over to rip the child out of a man's arms as the two men kept hitting each other.
At one point, one man had another in a headlock while other parents desperately tried to untangle them on the floor. A different man then put one of them in a loose headlock in an attempt to get him off the other parent, the video showed. Several parents managed to separate the two men. One of the men screamed: 'I like that!' several times before being escorted to the other side of the gym.
Police said one of the men was charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing. 'No further police involvement was needed,' Captain Kyle Gautsch told WJAC. The school district condemned the parents' action, saying it 'does not condone such behavior, nor will it be tolerated on school property.' Harrisburg School District called the fight a 'domestic dispute involving adults.' 'The safety and security of our students, staff, and visitors remains a top priority,' it said in a statement, according to WJAC. Police have not publicly identified the man who was charged.
In a separate incident a week prior, in the neighboring state of Ohio, a mother faced charges after a fight with another parent at her child's graduation. Jessica Anderson, 28, of Toledo, was charged with felonious assault after she was allegedly caught on camera swinging at another parent at Queen of Apostles School on May 21. Speaking to The Daily Mail, Anderson said it wasn't her face and name that should have been elevated over everyone else involved in the brawl, 'based off one side of a story.' 'I have five kids,' Anderson said. 'And being blasted all over the internet as some violent person has been extremely damaging when that’s not the full context of what happened. I’m taking the legal process seriously, and that’s all I really have to say right now.'
