One guard sent to hospital in fight with three girls at juvenile detention center

They were reportedly laughing and celebrating at the damage they had done when police arrived.

Tables and chairs knocked over, brooms used as weapons and one staff member in the hospital, getting a head wound closed up. That was the scene Sunday morning at the Juvenile Detention Center in La Crosse.

Three juveniles, aged 12, 15 and 16, face several charges, after a rampage that started because they apparently didn’t want to go back to their cells, after cleaning.

According to the report, the three girls were in a breakroom around 7 a.m. when the youngest refused to return to the cell block. So, a guard took hold of her arm and the fight ensued.

Staff at the center were outnumbered 3 to 2 and had to retreat to a control room to call 911.

Before that, however, as the male guard was wrestling with one of the girls, he noticed the other two overpowering the female guard. She was hit several times in the head, including by a broom, and dragged around 10 feet by her hair.

Police said, when they arrived, the girls were laughing and celebrating the damage they had done to the building.

The girls face charges of assault while armed, criminal damage to property, and battery.