Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA2x0EbbhA4 [1]

By Shannon Fiecke

A rowdy fan was tackled by the Shakopee High School activities director during a boys basketball game in Shakopee Tuesday after a Prior Lake High School student ran onto the court and interrupted a free throw.

The male student stole the ball from a Shakopee player near the end of the game and then began taking his own shots. Part of the incident is captured on a video posted to YouTube.

As the student jumped into the air, Activities Director John Janke tackled the student and dragged him to the sideline and forced him to the ground. Moments later, a couple Shakopee police officers, already at the game, took over.

As the game was temporarily suspended, more mayhem occurred, with some Prior Lake students throwing eggs onto the gymnasium floor.

Although their teams are clearly rivals and the game was described as spirited and loud as usual, the incident shocked both schools.

"This is just over the top," said Prior Lake Activities Director Mary Haugen, emphasizing that very few kids were actually involved.

Unfortunately, people are now painting all Prior Lake students in a bad light, she said.

"The kids in general were great; we don’t need to judge the masses by the actions of a few," she said.

Of his apprehension of the student on the court, Janke said he reacted in the manner he felt was most appropriate "to maintain the integrity of the game and hopefully maintain a safe environment and get the situation under control as quickly as possible."

This is the sort of thing you see on TV, he said. It’s certainly not something he or Haugen have witnessed during their careers.

"We’ve had to deal with a disruptive fan in the stands," Haugen said, "but nothing like this."

Haugen has learned since the incident that there had been talk among students that someone was going to do something — "it was just talk floating around," she said.

She said she and Janke took care of the incident as best they could, tried to get the kids calmed down, and then went on to finish the game.

During the timeout, the game announcer instructed students to remain seated.

Shortly later, in a move that some may have misinterpreted, Haugen asked her students to do a cheer, hoping to "break the ice."

"It was so tense," she said. "The team was flat, they lost their focus. The teams needed some energy back — they weren’t the problems."

Prior Lake school officials are interviewing students to find out more about what happened and why. One student was identified as being involved in the egg incident and has been disciplined.

"We are going to continue to investigate if there are more people that need to be penalized for their choices," Haugen said.

The student who ran onto the court was disciplined by the school and also ticketed by police for disorderly conduct. Neither activities director knew what prompted the student to do such a thing.

Shakopee police are still investigating the incident, said police Capt. Jeff Tate.

Haugen said sometimes the public thinks students get away with wrongdoing because the public isn’t told how students are disciplined. Because of privacy laws, she can’t reveal such information.

"We do discipline them when they do something wrong here; we take a very firm stand," she said.

Haugen said she’s asked students to tell an adult in the future if they think something like this is being planned.

The school has also been working hard to help students understand this wasn’t funny and they shouldn’t make the trouble-makers into heroes.

"Our basketball team was very disappointed. They were very embarrassed," Haugen said. "They couldn’t understand why their fans would do that — the egg-throwing especially."