BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- An attorney with a civil rights group told a federal judge today the group can't find another school system that uses pepper spray on students as much or in the same fashion as Birmingham high schools have.

The comments were made during a hearing today in a lawsuit filed last year against the Birmingham Board of Education, school resource officers and Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper over the use of pepper spray against high school students.

by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Ebony Howard, lead attorney with the SPLC, told U.S. District Court Judge Abdul Kallon that the center could not find similar lawsuits involving use of pepper spray against students in schools around the country, so she could not say what other courts have done on the issue. She also said the group couldn't find pepper spray being used in other school systems as much as it is being used in Birmingham.

Howard told the judge that the center found that it was used only one time against a student in 11 years in the Jefferson County School system.

officials said after the hearing that they have found pepper spray has been used about 100 times in Birmingham high schools over the past five years.

"We have not ... learned of a single other school district in the country where Mace is used repeatedly and regularly the way it is in Birmingham," Maria Morris, managing attorney of the Montgomery office of the SPLC, said in a press conference after the hearing.

Today's hearing was for the judge to hear arguments on whether he should certify the lawsuit as a class action to represent all 8,000 estimated Birmingham high school students, rather than just the eight students in the lawsuit.

Frederic Fullerton, assistant Birmingham city attorney, told Kallon that every situation the school resource officers encounter is different.

Fullerton said there has been no proof officers were not trained properly. He said officers get training, including on the use of pepper spray, at the police academy, plus regular training to keep up their certifications.

Also, the school resource officers receive specialized training, Fullerton said.

Kallon did not say when he would rule on whether to classify the lawsuit as a class-action case.

Howard also told the judge that plaintiffs want:

A modified policy on the use of pepper spray by school resource officers.

More comprehensive and extensive training for school resource officers.

A better selection process for people who become school resource officers.

The current policy on when school resource officers can use pepper spray in Birmingham high schools is too broad, Howard told the judge. "There's too much discretion," she said.