8 year old pepper sprayed?

I had to deal with a problem child in Children's Church. He would talk, yell, cause disruption all the time. One time he pulled the fire alarm (no biggie except I had to fight with the administrator to take the $500 fine we were assessed by the Fire Dept and expense it to the churches general fund as opposed to taking it out of my budget. I ran a mean and lean dept so $500 was a lot). One time he started throwing chairs (again, no biggie....I just restrained him). What pushed me over the top was when he jumped on a 3rd grade girl and was actually strangling her with intent to harm.

That's when I changed how he attended Children's Church. I wanted his parents to have a chance to go to church (and to get a short break away from him every week). He was medicated unlike the child mentioned in the article. He required 2 of my volunteers each week. He sat away from all of the other children with the volunteers. He couldn't do any crafts because he had stabbed his sister and father before. (i.e. no pencils, pens, scissors). When all of the other children had play time, I gave him his own brain-appropriate Bible lesson. (He was 10 but mentally was more along the lines of a 5 year old). BTW, when he was mad, he was STRONG!!! SCARY STRONG!!! There's no way a single one of the female volunteers would have been able to save that little girl. If I would have had pepper spray in my possession, you better believe I would have sprayed him. (Just for background information, he has bitten CHUNCKS out of his dads arm before, given his whole family black eyes, bloody noses, killed the families cat, etc). BTW....it took his doctors a couple of years but they did eventually come up with the correct combination of drugs so he could live a "semi-normal" life.

What do you think would happen if the cops tackled that 8 year old to disarm him and he got a scratch or broke a pinkie finger in the melee? That cop would lose their job and that completely irresponsible mother would sue the school district AND the police department.

 

In law enforcement, restraining a child is one of the most dangerous things to do. Not for the officers sake, but for the fact kid's bones break pretty easy. You hear all these sad stories about kids getting tazed, yeah thats a good thing. After what I'll admit is a pretty good jolt, kid or adults usually comply. Wrestling a kid into handcuffs results in alot of broken bone and lawsuits against LE agencies. I don't like pepper spray, but red eyes for a couple days is far better than a broken arm for a couple months.

My vote is always to taze not spray.

 

100000000000% agree - sometimes an "8 year old" is no longer an "8 year old" when they are in a biochemically induced rage - it was the safest option to pepper spray IMO - he has no permanent injuries from the incident and I agree totally that heaven forbid if the cops went hand's on with this kid and he got a slight scratch or a broken bone because his level of physical resistance is more in line with the resistance that an adult gives - then the terrible parents would have seen a potential cash cow.

Remember - it would be really easy to "subdue" the kid using physical force - one cop + one swing of the baton = one unconscious kid = situation handled. But as you can imagine we would certainly object to that!!! In a culture of hypersensitivity, under parenting, and sue-happiness, it's a relief to see that someone being paid to protect the PUBLIC put the needs of the PUBLIC over the priorities of an individual who was threatening other innocent people.

That is not to say that I do not have some sympathy for this poor kid - clearly he is also a victim of many perpetrators. That being said, if this was the third time the cops were called to a school for an 8 year old - something drastic has to change.

 

I agree the tazer is the proper tool for the job, no reason to expose the other kids and people to the harsh lung choking pepper spray.

 

Only thing with a taser is ppl who have pre-existing heart/cardio issues. . . .

Remember that foreign national they tazed out on the Northwest (I believe) last year (or maybe year before) that was being non-compliant in an airport (because of the language barrier) and they tazed him - he eventually died from the tazing.

That is not to say tasers are at all bad - I am just saying caution needs to be exercised when tasing smaller children - unless someone else has more XP on the subject of young/small humans being tased . . . .

 

My questions is this:

Why is this kid at home? He is a common criminal, what else would you call what he did? Assault and vandalism are most certainly crimes. This is the way they all start. No doddy in the home, parent in denial, kid can do no wrong and when he does try to minimize it.

I am really shocked at those who say if he had a knife or firearm, the cops would have been justified to use pepperspray. Wake up people! If that was the case that kid would be in a grave.

To see that kids room with all his toys and posters. Man if I did that, I would have had noting but a bed and clothiong in my room. My parents would have stripped me of everything that brough me enjoyment for months. I would have been bound to my room with the right to possess nothing more than an icepack to cool the welts on my behind!

 

The child should be punished more than just getting sprayed. If the parent won't do it then the parent should be punished also. Parenting classes are must in this case. As are anger management classes for the child. While the points on safety as pointed out are great, this is still a child and the officer has supposedly extensive training and protectinve gear. If injury is a concern for the child then more officers should have been called to the altercation.

 

exactly! The parents are at fault here.......unfortunatly the kid is so messed up already that he doesnt stand a chance. I could not see the video but I guarantee that there will still be some lawsuit arise out of this.

As a child I was always told, I could call my parents for anything. However if I ever got arrested I best not call them as I would be safer behind bars!

 

But that could be considered 'child abuse' nowadays...remember, discipline is the enemy. Children that have no discipline, and are brought up to believe they can do no wrong become very well adjusted pillars of the community!

The above of course is sarcasm if you didn't figure that out. I was in a store a couple of years back, and a mother was yelling at her out of control child, who you could tell just wanted some attention. She finally caught him, and smacked him. Big no no in today's world. Some nosey woman called child services and before that woman made it out of the store, the police and some woman were there to take the kid in for "his protection." When I was a child and being an ass, guess what I got smacked, or spanked, or grounded, etc. I figured out very quickly the difference between right and wrong. And that is the point! It is VERY humane to spank your child, or deprive him/her of luxuries as punishment. Instead, we, as a culture, decide that medication is the best answer. How did we ever survive before Zoloft, Ritalin, and Xanax were created? Some children do deserve to be medicated, as they have ACTUAL disorders, chemically! This child falls into that category. It seems to me that every kid you come across nowadays has some affliction that requires prescription medication. Is it the water?

 

The report goes on to say Aidan, was holding what looked like a [B}sharpened one foot stick and he screamed[/B], ‘Get away from me you f—ers.’”

That is a weapon with intent to do harm no matter the age. Just like in any situation man, women or child picks up a weapon then they are a combatant. So i would say they handled the situation correctly and lucky he didnt get zapped.