Quakertown officials silent on police assault of teens

Following two widely broadcasted and heated council sessions, attendance has wavered in Quakertown. Council officials under the direction of president Donald E. Rosenberger have remained silent on the topic of police chief Scott McElree, who jointly serves as the open records officer and manager for the borough. McElree, after assaulting student protestors and choking a student outside of Sunday’s Deli and Restaurant last month remains on paid leave from his position as chief.

Quakertown students stand up to police violence

Quakertown Police Chief Scott McElree assaults a high school student at a anti-ICE protest on February 20. Following the murders by border patrol agents in Minneapolis, Anti-ICE demonstrations have peppered the nation and the state.

On February 20, Quakertown Community High School students were met with police violence and brutality when the towns' off-duty police chief choked and tackled demonstrators at an anti-ICE walkout.

"My first thought is, they're going to try to bury that evidence," said Kelsey Nielsen an activist in the area.

"Because if they were to actually acknowledge what this was, it would not just hold this police chief, Scott McElree accountable and the others who were there. It would have to require a look at how policing works in this country as a whole."

Local students at Quakertown Community High School in opposition to the homeland occupation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis and elsewhere planned and received approval for a student walkout protest.

The night before, however, threats of violence against students circulated around the school and on social media from those who sought to instill fear into the group. The morning of the action one of the school's principals Jason Magditch sent a joint email concluding that the school would cancel the protest.

Students persisted with the action. In several short videos posted online, a group of nearly 50 high school students can be seen marching along neighborhood sidewalks with varied responses from passing traffic. As the action came to a head outside of Sunday's Deli & Restaurant on Front Street, plainclothes police officers met the teenagers and appeared to begin to corralling them onto the sidewalk.

From one of the moments captured in the videos shared, you can see an officer identify one of the teens within the crowd, before an unknown man in a brown jacket pushes forward and begins assaulting students. The man is later identified as the town's plainclothes police sheriff, Scott McElree.

During the escalated scuffle, McElree is seen from several angles fighting the student protestors and most notably putting a girl into a headlock and wresting her to the ground. Multiple teens as well as McElree are captured on video bloodied from the ordeal.

Bloodied protest sign held by the students at Quakertown Community High School.

Five students were arrested, with some charged with felony assault. The chief has since been placed on administrative leave, pending their own investigation.

In the aftermath, parents and community in the town are livid.

The incident, has sparked lengthy council meetings. The meetings specifically surrounded the charges brought against the five students involved, known as the "Quakertown 5," and the desire for the police chief to be fired and charged.

“If the police were supposed to serve and protect, they should have been there making sure that regardless of whether you agree with the protest or not. Those are teenagers. Those are children. You should have been there to protect them from a terroristic threat that was made," said Nielsen on the officers inexplicable behavior that day.

"These students are some of the bravest members of our community," remarked an attendee during public comment at Quakertown Borough Hall. A sentiment expressed by many present.

"I feel our police force dropped the ball on so many levels, between the escalation of violence, their complacency in regards to the men harassing and assaulting the senses of these children, to the excessively long time the children were held in custody," remarked David Stubanas, a town resident who documented the students action online. "I feel the responsibility of these failures go to the top of the food chain in our police force."

This story continues to develop as the students seek justice for the charges that have been brought against them.