Emails from Quakertown Community School District, the police department, and the borough council reveal more of what town leaders were saying and doing before and after the student walkout that led to a police confrontation and student arrests.
The Feb. 20 high school walkout to protest immigration control policies ignited outrage after viral videos showed about a dozen students fighting with borough police Chief Scott McElree, who charged into the crowd dressed in plainclothes and put one student in a chokehold during the melee. Several students were arrested and charged, and McElree remains out on workers’ compensation after reportedly being injured in the clash.
Emails to and from the police chief, obtained through a Right to Know request, in the days after the walkout mirror the division and anger that has permeated among residents. In some, the chief expresses an idea shared by many people who approved of his actions: that the chief’s supporters are local, and his critics are outsiders…