Minor High School marching band parents say their children are traumatized after witnessing Birmingham police tase and arrest band director Johnny Mims after last week’s game against Jackson Olin High school.

Parents reported that students fainted, had panic and asthma attacks and ultimately were left to find their own way home from a dark field after Mims’ arrest. Mims drove the band’s bus.

“It was very chaotic. Those kids are very traumatized,” Minor High School Band President Ericka Weldon told reporters Wednesday. “I have parents calling me left and right asking what am I supposed to do? How am I going to help them mentally after all of this?”

Ambulances arrived at the school after the game because some students were hurt after the lights went off or had fallen off the bus or fainted from stress, Weldon said.

Mims’ band was playing “Talkin’ Out the Side of Your Neck” Thursday night, about 18 minutes after the game ended, when Birmingham police officers approached school staff.

On Wednesday, Mims said he and the Jackson-Olin band director had agreed to play three stand tunes after the game. In some HBCUs and predominantly Black high schools, once the football game ends, bands stay on to play for families and supporters in what is commonly called the “The 5th Quarter.”

Police contend Mims didn’t comply with their order to make his band stop playing. Police wanted to quickly clear the stadium following the end of the Sept. 14 game.

Mims was charged with disorderly conduct, harassment and resisting arrest. He is on administrative leave with pay pending ongoing investigations.

Multiple cell phone videos and police body cam footage released Monday show the field going dark midway through the confrontation. Students can be heard screaming and crying as police deploy a Taser stun gun on Mims multiple times.

Jasmine Little, a dance line volunteer and recent graduate, said she could barely see anything in the dark, but witnessed a police officer grabbing Mims’ neck and heard officers tase him three or four times. Little, as well as Mims and his lawyers, denied police accounts that Mims ever struck an officer.

“Mr. Mims did not hit a police officer,” Little said. “He didn’t even raise a finger.”

Weldon and Tanesha Grimes, a parent of a student on the Tigerette dance line, said chaos ensued as soon as the lights were cut off. The dance line took off running, students were screaming and crying. Some fainted and others had panic and asthma attacks.

Weldon fell and hit her head, knee and fingers, she said. She claimed police also threatened to tase her husband and another parent who were attempting to deescalate the situation.

“They were aggressive all around to everyone who was trying to help get this solved,” she said.

Mims was also the bus driver, so students and chaperones were left to figure out how to get back to the school on their own – along with coolers, chairs, flag poles and other heavy equipment.

“We’re doing all of this in the dark along with making sure we had 145 kids accounted for,” Weldon said.

In a Facebook post, one student claimed police threatened to mace band members if they didn’t leave the scene. Parents, on Wednesday, said they did not witness anyone being pepper sprayed, but said some students experienced asthma attacks.

“It’s extremely upsetting to me that our students, our children, had to witness that scene. Nothing is more important than their well-being,” Superintendent Walter Gonsoulin said Tuesday, noting that counselors would be talking with students this week about the incident.

Weldon said counseling resources haven’t been enough, and that many students are still avoiding going to class or having nightmares after the incident.

“They’re just very traumatized by this,” she said. “It’s one thing to see it on TV, but when you see it in front of you, that’s terrifying to any child.”

Several families showed up in support of Mims at a Wednesday press conference held by his lawyers.

“When you look at the world today and you acknowledge who the good people are and who the bad people are, Mr. Mims is one of the good ones,” said Mondrella Melton, a parent of a band member.

“It’s like a big family,” she added.

The Minor High School band is recognized as one of the best band programs in the state.

Mims said he’s worked hard to build a rapport and bond with the band since he came to Minor in 2018.

“This is no way to explain how I’m doing because I know that my students are hurting. I know that they come to school every single day trying to figure out when their director is going to be back,” he said. “So regardless of what was going on on that stage… nothing is more important than the interaction that happens on a day-to-day basis between me and the students and the staff that inspire those students.”

The band will continue to play this week, Mims said, despite his absence.

“It was always said that regardless of what happens to any individual within a group, the band still has a responsibility,” Mims said. “And so their responsibility is to get ready for the next performance. And so I’m so proud of them.”