Central Valley school officials last night said they will likely take a hearing by the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League to sort out last week's confrontation between a football referee and a Monaca football fan -- a confrontation in which the fan ended up Tasered and arrested.

"We are currently working with the WPIAL to determine if the actions of the referee were appropriate," Assistant Superintendent Nick Perry said. "We fully expect that we will have a full hearing in front of the WPIAL to determine what exactly happened."

Monaca High School Principal Shawn McCreary -- Monaca High School is part of the Central Valley School District -- said fans were getting vocal because of the number of penalties called in the Monaca-South Side Beaver game. As the teams were leaving the field for halftime, referee Eric Hemrick "went into the crowd to tell a fan that if his verbal behavior continued, he would be ejected."

"At that point, the stories start to differ."

Official reports said the fan, Tom Phillips, attacked Mr. Hemrick and then attacked a Monaca police officer. The Monaca officer used a Taser to subdue him.

Other Monaca fans, however, have questioned the behavior of Mr. Hemrick, who is a lieutenant with the State Police.

"Who is in charge of them, to throw them out if they're out of line?" Monaca resident Ken Kraus asked the school board.

The school does provide what's called a game day manager to handle such things. Mr. Perry said the judgment will ultimately be up to the WPIAL, however.

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