Posts
Tasers in School
This serves as follow-up to a previous post. There is a list of article links below involving tasers and their use in schools. Please review them and give me your thoughts. Officers, including the Juvenile Resource Officers in the schools, currently are armed with tasers. There is NOT a policy in place either with the Charles County Sheriff's Office or the Charles County Board of Education regarding the use of tasers on school grounds.
My opinion....if a juvenile warrants being tased and they aren't on school grounds, they will be tased. Are officers supposed to stop them and ask their age before tasing them? Some of these "juveniles" are bigger than I am.
- November 18, 2004 - http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/november2004/081104tasersinschools.htm
- January 13, 2006 - http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=3806891
- January 14, 2010 - www.chicagonow.com/.../should-cops-taser-kids-in-school.html
- February 7, 2007 - http://pierretristam.com/Bobst/07/cn020707.htm
- March 13, 2010 - www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9021323
- March 23, 2010 - http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2010-03-23/story/glynn-county-school-board-rejects-taser-proposal
- April 29, 2010 - www.charlotteobserver.com/.../deputy-uses-taser-on-teen-at-school.html
- June 11, 2010 - http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/orange_news/061110girl-shot-with-taser-during-school-fight
- OVERALL - http://www.schoolsecurity.org/trends/tasers.html
1 comment:
'Was that enough? Are you calmed down now?' and he did it again."
So, she's sitting there shaking and screaming, 'That hurts!' He does it again, but it's really awkward -- the fact that he [h]as a smile planted on his face."
"The principal...told Eyewitness News that the taser can be used 'when a student is deemed out-of-control or they did not obey a specific rule."
The smile, and the principal's reference to disobeying a specific rule are truly disturbing. These articles are full of such accounts of the use of tasers on students.
"Tasing sounds like an extreme measure but it is actually a better way of gaining control than to hit him with something or punch him," -- sheriff in article re: tasing a student
Personal opinion: Tasing IS an extreme measure. Hitting and punching students are extreme measures, too.
Ms. Abell, you asked in this blog entry, "...if a juvenile warrants being tased and they aren't on school grounds, they will be tased. Are officers supposed to stop them and ask their age before tasing them?"
I do not think it is so much a question of "age" as it is "conduct." What behavior warrants any of the extreme measures -- hitting (with anything), punching or tasing? I think that is a fair question to ask, especially for the school setting, where one would expect the "juvenile" is a known entity. Autistic? Epileptic? Diabetic? Brain-injured? Heart condition? Asthmatic? Emotionally traumatized?
I am concerned about tasers becoming a convenient and readily-used means of control in the school setting. Tasers are not toys, and the use of them is not "discipline."
I thought Pierre Tristam's piece was quite good...
Post a Comment