A fight between two girls at the Windham High School last week ended when a police officer used an electroshock weapon on one of the girls. Police say the jolt was justified, but the girl who was zapped said it was unexpected and unwarranted.

At about 7:30 a.m. Thursday, May 3 Windham police officer Jeffrey Smith reportedly encountered a crowd of about 30 people circled around a 15-year-old girl fighting with Desiree Yelitz, 18 inside near the high school cafeteria.

Windham Police Chief Rick Lewsen said Smith was elbowed in the face and kicked in the shin as he tried to pull the two girls apart. Smith reported that the two girls grabbed each other by the hair and traded blows with their free hands while he yelled and tried to hold them apart.

Smith was knocked to the ground, police say, and was unable to gain control of the two girls. As a result, he drew his Taser electric stun device and used it on the girl he determined as the aggressor in the fight.

The Taser fired two probes into Yelitz just above her right shoulder blade and sent an electrical current into her muscles, stopping her cold.

“Honestly I did not feel the Taser,” Yelitz said in an interview Wednesday.

After being stunned, Yelitz then sat straight up and asked what happened. She said a friend told her a Taser had been used on her.

“It just knocks your breath away,” said Lewsen. He said all Windham police officers, himself included, who are armed with Tasers have been shocked with them as part of their training. He said the device has no long-term effects and temporarily shuts down muscle movements.

Lewsen said there was nothing unusual about this case and that Smith was justified in using the Taser. He said the other alternatives would have been too harsh, such as using a club or a pepper spray that would have harmed the girl or crowd gathered around the fight.

Both girls were then ordered on their stomachs and handcuffed. Lewsen said the girls called each other names as they were taken to the office. Both were suspended for 10 days.

Yelitz said the suspension will not interfere with her graduation. She said she does not think Smith was justified in using the Taser on her.

“I was cool with Smitty before that,” she said.

Yelitz said the other girl had incorrectly accused her of calling the police on her for vandalizing a telephone pole in broad daylight and the two had exchanged glares and name calling earlier in the week.

Yelitz said the girl and her friends were waiting for her at school on Thursday. After exchanging harsh words she touched the other girl on the face and said, “It’ll be K sweetheart,” and started to walk away.

That’s when Yelitz said the other girl grabbed her by the hair and the two began exchanging blows.

Yelitz said she had never been in a fight before and blacked out, remembering little of what happened next. She said she heard Smith yell to stop but doesn’t remember him getting involved or threatening to use the Taser.

“Obviously, I wasn’t paying attention to everything that was going on around,” she said. She said a few of the people around have since told her that Smith had warned her that she was about to be jolted, but that the overwhelming majority of witnesses said he did not.

Chief Lewsen said the witnesses, including a teacher, confirmed Smith’s side of the story. Yelitz said she did not see a teacher at the fight.

Yelitz said she and the other girl didn’t talk as they were taken to the office. She said she started to feel sick to her stomach as she was taken to the Cumberland County Jail. She said she believes it was stress and not the Taser that made her feel ill.

“It was the scariest thing I’ve ever had to do,” she said of going to the jail for a few hours.

She said she has been given homework during her time away from school and has put in a lot of extra hours at the Windham Shaw’s Supermarket where she works.

“I just want to get back to school so I can finish up the year and get out of there,” she said.