A Marion County school resource officer was called for help Tuesday after a choking incident between two elementary students erupted over a milk carton falling into food on a lunch tray.
The Marion Oaks Elementary School resource officer, who is a Marion County sheriff’s deputy, was contacted by the school’s dean, who reported the incident between the two 8-year-old students in the facility’s cafeteria.
The deputy escorted the student who had been choked to the school nurse to be examined and observed red marks around his neck and on the left side of his face. The student later ate his lunch in the school’s clinic and reported that his neck was still bothering him “but he was starting to feel better,” a sheriff’s office report states.
The deputy then sat in with the dean as he spoke with the student accused of choking the other boy. That student said he acted the way he did because the boy cut in front of him in the lunch line and caused his milk carton to fall into his macaroni and cheese, the report says.
The dean and the deputy called the student’s mother and explained what had happened. The deputy told her that incident would be documented as an incident report and any “punitive action” would be handled by the school per its policies and procedures.
The deputy also made contact with the other boy’s mother and told her what had taken place. He also advised her that the incident would be documented and administrators at the school, located at 280 Marion Oaks Trl., would handle any further action.