Story said the teens didn’t have time to use the pepper spray. It was probably buried in their backpack and not readily available.
Sorry, read too fast and missed that. Keeping it in the pack is stupid, take that from someone who has done it with both spray and more lethal means. If it can’t be deployed, it’s useless, that they should have been taught if they carried it. Bear bangers, more popular in Canada, are effective too, though they may also be problematical with minors.