Duval County to equip school officers with Tasers (Florida, of course)

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Fri, Jan. 07, 2005

Duval County to equip school officers with Tasers
Associated Press


JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Police officers working in Duval County middle and high schools will soon carry Taser guns, joining the ranks of several other counties where the stun guns are issued to school resource officers.

Some school officials are surprised by the action, saying they were never told by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office that it planned to issue stun guns to the officers assigned to most middle and high schools.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has signed a $1.8 million contract with Taser International to buy 1,800 Tasers over the next two years.

Two of the School Board's seven members, Brenda Priestly Jackson and Kris Barnes, said they already have concerns with police presence in schools and are opposed to equipping the officers with Tasers.

"Can't a couple of adults take down a child?" Barnes said.
(snip/...)

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/10590420.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From googled article, (small town got ONE TASER!) photo of a newly-tased officer......



http://www.paynesvillearea.com/News/HeadlinesArticles/archives/062503/0625taser.html


Taser dart marks
Story accompanying the photos
http://music.barrow.org/2002/Q3/amy.htm

[gatorboy]

1. Some schools can't even afford decent books because of budget cuts..

Ohhh, but we'll provide fucking tasers!!! :mad:

[William Bloode]

2. I am soooooo glad....

I left the fastly emerging facist police state that is Florida. I still live in the south, but my state is fairly progressive(especially for the south)and we have had tasers for many years. It just seems our police know when to use the and what for.

[el_gato]

3. the schools are really just becoming prisons for children

[donsu]

4. watching florida crumble

can't capitalize florida anymore

[AP]

5. So this is what American captalism and entrepreneurialism has come to.

Using taxpayer money to buy things local governments don't need from people connected to the Republican party.

[NYC]

18. You hit the nail on the head.

[madrchsod]

6. i don`t know about this

why don`t they just carry guns? i`m sure the kids and their parents would feel so much safer if they knew that at the first sign of trouble guns would be a`blazing.

[BiggJawn]

7. Why is this man looking glum?

His fucking cash register is ringing like the contest line at a Top-40 radio station!

1-point-8 Million BUCKS! KNEW there was a reason he didn't divest himself of Taser, International stock when he was being considered for Chief Lackey to SHRUBCO...

[ladjf]

8. It would be interesting to see how many times the tasers

were used in the schools of Jacksonville with a one year period, the reasons for the use, and the physical trauma to the student.

I've been a educator in the South for over 30 years. I've never once seen any situation in a public school that required police intervention of any kind, let alone a stun device. Let's say that use the weapon 10 times over a period of a year. In addition to the trauma to the victim, other students would be emotionally damaged as well. That would a monetary cost of $180,000 per incident. If there are over 10 incidents, the city should use the 1.8 million to upgrade their staff, to better prepare them to effectively deal with unruly
students.

This is one of the nuttiest things I've ever heard of. Who's idea was it.

[lostnfound]

10. Incredible. What a way to teach a child respect for others.

This is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard.

[ladjf]

14. There are better ways to educate than that.

Who ever is behind this crazy scheme needs to be investigated, first to make sure that there aren't some "kickbacks" floating around regarding the sale and secondly, needs a psychiatric examination.

Any child that is so out of control that high intensity stun guns are needed has already been seriously neglected by a LONG series of adults. If the local laws require the schools to accept known criminals or students with behavioral disorders, they should be changed. Other types of institutions are better trained to deal with problems of that nature.

I would imagine that the main purpose of the stun guns would be to intimate students, thereby heading off violent behavior. Even if that tactic was somewhat successful, the damage to the learning environment has already been done by the mere fact that the school is so dangerous that such counter violence is required.

America is going "nuts". The greatest accomplishment of the 21st Century would be that the human race finally realizes that it is too stupid to survive.

[tblue37]

16. We've seen that cops

won't hesitate to use Tasers on kids--especially in Florida. Remember that 6-year-old boy and that 12-year-old girl who were Tasered? I bet there will be lots of Taserings--lots.

The fact that cops are still Tasering so inappropriately (like the tasering of a guy in a wheelchair "armed" with scissors, the fans on the football field in Arizona) despite all the recent bad publicity and the certainty that they will end up with more bad publicity suggests very stronlgy that they just can't stop themselves.

It's like an addicition. I wonder--will we end up with 12-step programs for cops that can't control their addiction to Tasering vulnerable people?

[alwynsw]

9. "Can't a couple of adults take down a child?" Barnes said.

Not if that kid is a 300# football jock like our friends' son.

Or, in the case of my wife, a retired 5'4" science teacher and her nearest help, an overweight middle-aged fellow whose doctor had advised medical retirement for a heart ailment, or the 98# 48 year old English teacher, the three couldn't subdue the average high school boy.

Public schools are forced by law to accept all students, regardless of ability or inclination. The laws are structured in such a way that students must be proven to be a hazard in order to be assigned to alternative schools. What happens to their potential victims in the interim.

Of course, I could tell you about a fairly recent incident wherein a teacher got his arm broken while trying to break up a student fight. Or I could tell you about the teacher who was piled on by a group because the kids didn't think a substitute had the authority to run the classroom - oh yeah, that was in a local middle school - grades 6-8. He was hospitalized for several days.

[lostnfound]

12. The choice: abuse of teachers by students OR of students by officers?

It's a hard choice, but I'd prefer to risk the former over the latter. But teachers ought to be empowered -- aren't public schools allowed to expel students anymore?

These cases won't be solved by having an officer with a taser on the grounds -- there won't be one in every classroom will there?

School officer w/taser: what a great job opportunity for sadists. Isn't that a frightening thought? Who would protect the kids then?

There's always tradeoffs. New technology is not a cure-all.

[alwynsw]

17. Empowered?

Talk to a few teachers. Better yet, go into the classroom for a year or so.

FYI: the idea of having the officers there is to protect the kids - most often from the other kids.

There's no perfect solution to anything. Unfortunately, what we're discussing here is one of the reasons private schools are getting such huge boosts in enrollments.

I'll not bother with the sadist remark. There are socal deviants in all areas.

[UpInArms]

11. Taser: SEC probing safety statements

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B4BA73180%2D1E8C%2D46FF%2D8D17%2DB8A648F92F00%7D&siteid=mktw

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Taser International shares slumped as much as 23 percent in early trade Friday, after the company said it's cooperating in an informal U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry of its safety statements and sales to a distributor.

Shares of Taser, which makes electric "stun" guns, were last down 15.4 percent at $23.40, having earlier touched a low of $21.29.

The inquiry was disclosed by the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based maker of the weapon, which is widely used in U.S. law enforcement and military agencies.

Questions about the weapon's safety -- and studies used to support safety claims -- were raised last fall, when the New York Times reported that a U.S. Air Force laboratory study concluded the weapons could be dangerous, and in November, after police in Florida used the device on children.

Taser (TASR: news, chart, profile) had claimed tests showed the weapon was safe to use on children

...more...

[NYC]

19. Also questionable year end sales.

[Tempest]

13. Didn't a student in Florida recently die after being tasered?

I seem to recall this story in the last couple of days.

[fryguy]

15. here's an idea....

how about we TEACH kids in school instead of only discipline them? and to start, instead of sinking all this money into security how about building new schools and sufficiently equiping them to educate our children.....

[Castilleja]

23. Oh, you just said it ALL right there!

Just what the hell is more important in school?? To look at what is going on in many schools lately, it would seem education may be coming in second in importance. And, of course, cuts in academic areas......

[LynnTheDem]

20. Slip-sliding right into a POLICE STATE DICTATORSHIP.

Wwe're outta here next year...I hope we're in time.

[struggle4progress]

21. kick

[AirAmFan]

22. Duval school brass have responded exactly the way plantation owners would

have reacted to new technologies 200 years ago. What percentage of Jacksonville middle-high students are African-American? What percentage of teachers and administrators?

Vastly outnumbered by their slaves, fearful plantantion owners always kept on the cutting edge of firearms technology.

How many tasers does that make per school? And how many computers, microscopes, and library books did Duval buy during the past 12 months?

[Judi Lynn]

24. Found this map with taser deaths noted through some point in 2004

Makes your chest swell with pride, doesn't it? Check Florida's total. You REALLY have to wonder what's going on there.

Remember the Miami demonstration during the FTAA last year or so. The police behaved as if they were dealing with an all-out riot, but all the rioting was on their side, apparently.

There's very little going right there. Jeb is also closing libraries. That'll get more people out on the streets to take their chances with tasers!