Tasers Becoming Mainstream in Public Schools

[Anonymous]

http://www.news4jax.com/news/2748427/detail.html

News4Jax.com
14-Year-Old Girl Tasered At Palatka School
Mother Concerned That She Wasn't Notified
POSTED: 5:44 p.m. EST January 7, 2004


PALATKA, Fla. -- A classroom disturbance in Palatka Monday ended with a student being tasered by a school resource officer. The officer said he was trying to arrest the 14-year-old girl when she put up a fight, then he shocked her.

 
 
Palatka Student Tasered  
 
 

Tasers are weapons used to give a strong shock when someone is resisting officers. Police in Putnam County said they are only using tasers in the case when a student becomes extremely violent toward school officials or other students.

"I would say that it would be something you would only use when you had to. But in this particular case, it enabled the child to be restrained in a safe way," said Principal Helen Muir.

 
 Which School Districts Allow Tasers?
Channel 4 News checked with other school districts in the area regarding their use of tasers in schools:

Clay County - School resource officers are taser-certified and carry tasers.
Nassau County - Resource officers in middle and high schools carry tasers.
St. Johns County - Only the school resource officers who are already taser-trained carry them. The Sheriff's Office hopes to eventually have all patrol officers, including resource officers, trained and carrying tasers.
School resource officers in Duval and Baker counties do not carry tasers.  

The incident at E.H. Miller Exceptional School was the first time tasers were used at any Putnam County public school.

The girl in this case was reportedly heavy, and officials said she was hard to restrain. The student had prior problems at the school, and she threatened staff on and resource officers on Monday when the incident took place.

According to the resource officer's report:

"I deployed my taser ? to her chest. [She] continued to struggle. ? I touched [her] a second time on her back with my taser and attempted to place her on her stomach. [She] then jumped to her feet and pushed her teacher to the ground and began to run. ?I then deployed the air cartridge. ? [She] fell to the ground and I ordered her several times to put her hands behind her back. I engaged the taser, she attempted to get up I engaged the taser again for another cycle. She then was handcuffed."

The student's mother told Eyewitness News via phone she was concerned that she was never contacted by school officials or the police department about her daughter being tasered.

The student was arrested and spent the night in a juvenile facilty. The next day, she told her mother she was tasered.

"We can only apoloigize for the mother not being notified by our agency," said Capt. Rick Ryan of the Putnam County Sheriff's Office. "We'll try and ensure that that doesn't happen again."

The mother has been in contact with sheriff's office authorities, and she plans to meet with school officials Thursday.
Copyright 2004 by News4Jax.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Anonymous]

http://www.ljworld.com/section/schools/story/181245

Olathe school officers carry Tasers
The Associated Press

Monday, September 13, 2004

Olathe ? Misbehaving students at Olathe East High School may be stunned to find out what police officer Jeff Jewett is carrying through the school's halls this year.

   
All of the school-based and patrol officers in Olathe are carrying an X26 Taser, which can subdue a person with a five-second, 50,000-volt shock through wires connected to prongs that can penetrate clothing.

Jewett has added the Taser to the gun, baton and pepper spray he carries as he works with Olathe East's 1,400 students.

The weapons also are being worn by some school-based officers in Lenexa and Lee's Summit and North Kansas City, Mo.

So far, none of the officers has had reason to use the weapon.

"It's our hope that by our officers carrying these, we reduce the risk of injury to the suspect or the officer," said Olathe Police Department spokesman Sgt. Greg O'Halloran.

So far, no Olathe parents or teachers have complained about having the Tasers in schools. And at least one student approves of Jewett carrying the weapon.

"It makes me feel safer," senior Keith Spreckels said. "I'm not going to do anything where he has to use it on me. But I think it's cool that he has a Taser and can shoot someone 21 feet away."

Some school-based officers are not given Tasers simply because some departments don't have enough of them. In Shawnee, the department has about 20 Tasers and two officers who have been trained as instructors. Capt. Ron Copeland said he did not think that school officers would be in the group of 20 that received the Taser training and weapons.

School resource officers in Lee's Summit were offered the option of carrying Tasers after completing the necessary training, department spokesman Mike Childs said.

"Compared to other pieces of equipment, the decision to have them have the option of carrying the Taser was somewhat of a no-brainer," Childs said.

[EricasMom]

Taser is headquartered in Scottsdale--Phoenix metro area--there have been numerous cases of deaths attributed in part or in full to Taser use.  ANYONE with children in public school should be going to their school administration and asking lots of hard questions about the possibility of Taser use.  This is not a benign, temporary take-down method and trained officers have used Tasers in harmful ways.  I shudder to think that any old security guard could pull one of these Tasers and taser away.  AZ Republic has done a series on Taser related deaths recently.  Look it up.

[Anonymous]

:nworthy:

[Anonymous]

Is Taser use safer than restraint?  Or is it that human contact, or other methods, is being replaced by tasers?  If it is a safer method of controlling out of control kids, then why isn't it used in residential programs?

[Deborah]

It is true. The masses have reached peak intellegence. It only goes down hill from here.
It's very unfortunate and sad for the children who find themselves in the clutches of sadistic adults.

Principals can no longer paddle a kid, but they can demand that they take psychotropic drugs and use tasers on them? Heaven help us all, especially the children. What kind of country/world are they seeking to create?