By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS Associated Press, and staff
COLUMBUS – Governor Mike DeWine says people shouldn’t rush to judgment in the case of a woman arrested after refusing to comply with requests to wear a mask at a middle school football game.
In an incident caught on cell phone video and circulated widely on broadcast and social media, a school resource officer uses a stun gun on the woman after repeated efforts to remove her from the stands at a stadium on Wednesday, where she was watching a game at a stadium in the Logan-Hocking Local School District, Logan Police Department officials said.
On the video, the officer is seen approaching the woman, followed by a verbal argument and the officer using a Taser before leading the woman away.
DeWine says the incident was an isolated one and the school was trying to follow guidelines set out to allow students to resume playing sports.
“I would just say to people who are judging the school, judging that officer, people who judging the school official you see in the video: they were trying to follow the guidelines that the Ohio Highschool Athletic Association, the health department, with the sole purpose of they’re wanting their kids to play,” DeWine said when asked about the incident during his coronavirus briefing Thursday.
He said he spoke to the district superintendent the morning after the incident and was told that the woman told officials she suffered from asthma and was offered a face shield but she refused.
The woman was charged with criminal trespassing.
Guidelines from the OHSAA and the state require spectators at sporting events in Ohio to wear face coverings.