Altercation on SEPTA bus involving former WHYY intern and pepper spray goes viral

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A confrontation between a conservative influencer and a woman on a SEPTA bus has gone viral, generating online debate, partisan accusations and a comment from Elon Musk.

A video clip shared on social media shows an exchange between Frank Scales, who identifies himself as an independent journalist and posts under the name SurgePhilly, and a woman believed to be Paulina Reyes, a recent communications and film student and former intern with WHYY News. Reyes is a former intern with Billy Penn at WHYY.

Scales and Reyes knew each other while both served in student leadership positions at Community College of Philadelphia, evidenced by photographs and video that shows them together.

In the footage posted by Scales, which circulated widely Tuesday, Reyes appears to have used pepper spray on Scales, whom she called a “fascist” and a “racist” during an expletive-laden verbal assault.

“How am I fascist?” Scales asked, before identifying her as Reyes.

“You talk s*** about Islamic people, you talk s*** about Black people. You talk s*** about Mexicans and you post on the internet,” Reyes said in the video.

Reyes appears to hit Scales and tries to hit the phone out of his hand before he gives it to his companion. She later yells at the companion to “Stop f***ing filming me” and appears to try to smack the camera again.

SEPTA confirmed they are investigating the incident which occurred on the Route 7 bus around noon Monday. According to Scales’ post on Instagram, the bus driver kicked Reyes off the bus. According to SEPTA, police were called and took Scales’ statement and he “refused any medical attention.”

In his post, Scales calls Reyes “a known ANTIFA agitator.” In response to his post, Musk responded “She has violence issues.”

Who are they?

Scales and Reyes studied at Community College of Philadelphia and interacted multiple times; Reyes even interviewed Scales at one point. The college did not confirm their current status, though Reyes is still enrolled, according to her LinkedIn page. Scales’ LinkedIn page does not include dates.

CCP declined WHYY News’ request for comment.

While at CCP, Scales successfully ran for student government president but was later impeached. Scales has claimed that other members of the student government and university officials turned on him after he publicly endorsed Donald Trump for president. The College Fix reported that Scales provided a letter he received from the university in which they accused him of “using derogatory language in reference to people of color and other marginalized groups, disrupting queer-sponsored events, and being verbally abusive in your tone and words towards others.”

A staff member at the college who is familiar with the incident said “many of those allegations are true” but added that they were not impeachable offenses under the Student Government Association’s constitution. However, according to the staff member, Scales also attempted to intimidate other SGA officers who opposed him to step down, in the hopes of replacing them with allies. That initiated the impeachment proceeding.

Scales has since founded Surge Media and started interviewing leftist protestors around Philadelphia, sometimes calling them “unhinged.” It was during one of these outings where pepper spray was first purportedly used against him. According to audio released on social media, which the poster claims to be recorded police chatter, police investigating that incident were skeptical. The Philadelphia Police Department declined to confirm or deny the authenticity of the video.

One of Scales’ primary public targets has been Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. In September, Scales first came to wide public attention when he disrupted an event in which Krasner was responding to the use of the National Guard in other cities and the possibility of Philadelphia as another target, accusing the administration of being those who would “agree with Adolf Hitler when he said that equality is a degenerate notion.”

Scales, who was in the audience, screamed “Lies!”

“That’s why Charlie Kirk was killed,” he continued. “You’re demonizing. That’s a disgrace.”

WHYY News reached out to Scales through the email on his Surge Media website and social media but has not yet received a response.

Reyes, a communications and film student who served as editor-in-chief on the college newspaper while at CCP, interned with Billy Penn at WHYY during the summer of 2025, where she reported on local news events.

Reyes’ time at WHYY has come under scrutiny on social media.

“Is @WHYYNews proud of their intern? Does WHYY News condone and support their employees committing felonious assault? Everyone will watch to see if they continue to allow this felon to work for them,” wrote a commenter who goes by the handle “Lee Shook” on X and identifies as “Conservative #MAGA.”

WHYY released a statement saying the company “is aware of a recent incident on a SEPTA bus involving a former intern, Paulina Reyes, and a local journalist” but noted that “Ms. Reyes served as an intern at WHYY from June 2025 through August 2025 and has no current affiliation, employment, or contractual relationship with our organization.”

“We reaffirm our strong support for civil discourse and remain dedicated to providing trustworthy, high-quality content to the Tri-State region,” the statement concluded.

Reyes did not respond to requests for an interview.

While Scales said on social media he would seek to press charges, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said that no charges have come through their office yet.