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This story was corrected on June 2, 2009

A sophomore at Watkins Mill High School was pepper-sprayed and arrested Friday morning after he allegedly shoved a police officer who was telling him to report for in-school suspension at the Gaithersburg school, according to the principal.

The incident occurred shortly after 7 a.m. in a hallway outside the cafeteria, within sight of about two dozen students, said Kevin Hobbs, principal of the 1,800-student school.

The student, who is not being named because he is a minor, was supposed to serve in-school suspension Friday for an earlier incident, Hobbs said. When the 16-year-old from Germantown arrived at school, he refused to report for his suspension. Hobbs and several school staff approached the student in the front lobby and told him to report for in-school suspension, but he walked toward the cafeteria.

"He's like, ‘Hell no,' ranting and raving, ‘I'm not going to go,'" Hobbs said.

Montgomery County Police Officer Stacy Flynn, the school's Educational Facilities Officer, or EFO, heard the chatter over her walkie-talkie and responded to the scene. She stood in a doorway leading out of the cafeteria with an arm "outstretched" and told the student to stop, according to a police statement.

In walking past her, the student "pushed her out of the way," Hobbs said, and the EFO used her pepper spray, then put the student into handcuffs. Flynn had told the student she would arrest him if he did not stop and place his hands behind his back, according to the police statement.

"Unfortunately, she had to stop him that way, but he had multiple opportunities to stop it other ways," Hobbs said. "I think he came in today knowing that he wasn't going to comply."

The student was taken to the health room, where school staff washed the spray from his eyes. An ambulance came as "protocol," Hobbs said. Hobbs said he talked to the student before he was taken to the police station.

"I told him, ‘You and I talk almost every day; if you were upset, why didn't you come to me first?'" Hobbs said. "He said ‘I wish I had.' He just lost it."

Police have charged the student as a juvenile with second-degree assault, disturbing school operations and resisting arrest. He was released into the custody of his parents, according to the police statement. Hobbs said he was also suspended for 10 days and has been recommended for expulsion.

As the sophomore was put into custody, more than 20 students in the cafeteria ran to the scene and were being "vocal and being inappropriate," Hobbs said. School staff told the students to go to class, but three of them refused to comply, including one who "was pretty adamant, to the point where he really was a distraction" and cursed loudly at a male teacher, Hobbs said.

"They only saw the last 30 seconds. They didn't see everything that led up to it," Hobbs said.

That student has been suspended for 10 days and went home with a parent at about noon. Hobbs talked with the three other students in his office.

There are 27 EFOs assigned to the county's 25 high schools. They follow the same guidelines as other county officers. The police department does not separately track how many times an EFO uses force or pepper spray, said Officer Megan Duffey, a police spokeswoman.

All county officers are given the spray, Duffey said, which is a 5 percent solution of "Oleoresin Capsicum," an extract of chili peppers. Montgomery County Public Schools security staff do not carry pepper spray, according to a school system spokesman.

"Typically it's used for out-of-control fights or disorderly subjects," Duffey said. "… We have to take into account how escalated the situation has become and if we're unable to calm the suspect down or gain control of the situation. It's basically the officer's judgment to try and deescalate the situation."