A  sophomore boy was arrested on suspicion of battery after allegedly spraying a schoolmate in the face with a fire extinguisher, police said.

San Ramon police Youth Resource Officer Jacob Benjamson said the suspect was arrested and taken to the police station after the incident on  Sept. 29. 

The boy, who will not be named because he is a minor, was issued a citation and released into the custody of his parents, Benjamson said.

In addition to misdemeanor battery, the suspect was also arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor tampering with fire equipment. The case has been filed with juvenile probation, Benjamson said.

“People do these types of things and they don’t realize there’s always repercussions,” Banjamson said.

The victim, a junior boy, was back at school on Oct. 2 and was in better condition after being sprayed in the face with a fire extinguisher.

The student said he was walking to his class on the second floor of the main building, when he saw the suspect take a fire extinguisher out of his backpack. The suspect then began spraying the north stairwell between the first and second floor near the event center. 

When the victim told the suspect to stop, the suspect allegedly turned and discharged the extinguisher into his face. The victim, who has asthma, was unable to breathe and ran outside of the building. 

He immediately threw up, but was able to breathe soon after receiving an inhaler from one of his teachers.

The victim said he was on poison control watch for 48 hours after this incident. He said his family was unable to pay for his hospital expenses so he was monitored at home on bed rest. 

“[The suspect] didn’t know what was in [the fire extinguisher] that might have killed me,” the victim said. “I was passing in and out of consciousness just going down the stairs.”

The victim announced to his choir class when he returned that he might also require surgery on his lungs within the coming months to remove any powder from the fire extinguisher that might have settled. 

Many students assumed the suspect was expelled from school, especially since he was absent from school the first week of October. But the suspect was seen on campus later last month.

All expulsions need to be approved by the school board through a formal hearing. Assistant principal Catie Hawkins said the school was unable to comment on the student’s status because of privacy reasons.

According to the California Education Code, a principal shall recommend expulsion of a student for any of the following acts committed at school, or at a school activity off school grounds: (1) causing serious physical injury to another person, except in self defense; (2) possession of any knife, explosive, or other dangerous object of no reasonable use to the pupil; (3) unlawful possession of any controlled substance with some exceptions in the case of first offenses of possession of no more than one ounce of marijuana; (4) robbery and extortion; and (5) assault or battery upon any school employee.

In the case of mandatory expulsions, where a student must be immediately suspended and is then recommended for expulsion, he must have committed any of the following acts: (1) possessing, selling, or otherwise furnishing a firearm; (2) brandishing a knife at another person; (3) unlawfully selling a controlled substance; (4) committing or attempting to commit a sexual assault or committing a sexual battery; and (5) possession of an explosive. 

The incident on Sept. 29 capped a chaotic week in which students were evacuated to the football field three times after fire alarms were pulled or fire extinguishers were discharged. 

Students who didn’t have classes in the main building were forced to stay on the football field for about 30 minutes. Students who had classes on the first and third floors of the main building were allowed to return to class after about 40 minutes, while students with classes on the second floor, where the fire extinguisher was discharged, returned with about 30-40 minutes remaining in class. 

“The students were frustrated, the staff was frustrated,” said math teacher Kelly King, whose classroom is on the second floor where two fire extinguishers were discharged within a matter of three days.  “The entire event was very unnerving. It was just disrupting.”

During the week of Sept. 25 there were a total of five fire alarms activated in some way, but only four led to evacuations. On Sept. 28, the fire alarm was triggered once lunch ended and again during sixth period. 

Students were evacuated to the football field for the first alarm, but were called back when heading toward the field during the second alarm.  

The alarm was also activated on Sept. 27, between A and first periods, after a student discharged a fire extinguisher on the second floor. Most students missed 30-40 minutes of class time, but those on the second floor didn’t return to class until the end of the period. There was also a fire alarm pulled after school on Sept. 26. Students were already leaving campus and were not evacuated.

The school has three free false alarms before being charged $500 for the next one, said Derek Krause, the Deputy Fire Chief of the San Ramon Valley Fire Department. Every false alarm after the fourth one goes up another $500 each time.

The district to not respond to emails questioning if students and their parents could be billed for false alarm charges.

“The bigger cost here is that every time there’s a false alarm, the fire department is pulled away from something else, and it’s usually more important,” Krause said. “If it’s something like a medical emergency that we’re getting pulled away from, that might be a life or death situation. That’s what we hope students will learn from this.”