Taser incident shocks students - Greenwich Time

How about you let him know he will be reported to the principle,and let him go.Then the principle can call the parents,and let them know what disciplinary action will be imposed.My suggestion would be to put him against a wall and throw water balloons at him,that will teach a lesson.On a serious note,this incident was grossly mishandled.

Was it necessary to use the Taser ? Maybe not, they could whacked him with their nighsticks instead. It should be left to the officers' discretion, they are the people doing the job.

This kid is trying to play the victim now ...I don't think so.
You want to act like a savage, then you deal with the consequences...

Maybe they should have given him candy instead and asked him to please be nice... get a clue you dopey liberals.

Spare the rod, spoil the child.

Minorties and senior's are in trouble again what's next tasing a senior citizen wheelchair bound? Let's keep score so far is one white and one Latino

That is the problem with todays society. It is everybody elses fault. No one takes ownership for their actions or submits to authority anymore. If the kid just kept his mouth shut and did what he was supposed to do nothing would have happened.

He didn't throw a freaking chair, he kicked it barley 4 feet, oh yeah it's not alright that he goes and say bye to friends where he needed to walk by them anyways to leave the school. 3 cops and 2 more security guards didn't take him down? but the need to taser him was in no doubt at all. He should've listened instead of arguing no doubt, but to take it as far as MORE than 3 tasers, no way, the paper might say 3, but i know for a fact its more.

From the story: "Greene questioned why no school administrators were present to intervene and diffuse the confrontation to avert an arrest. "

I question this too - I would bet that a calm counselor could have handled this situation without incident. The fact that somehow security and the police were called to handle an aggrivated student is an extremely poor decision. We're suppose to teach our kids how to properly handle situations, and this was completely wrong.

Also - why was the teen given a 1 week suspension for throwing water ballons in the first place? Should have been 1-2 days MAX and if he got unreasonable from there, give him comminuty hours. He was aggrevated and kicked a chair because the punishment did not fit the crime. From there the situation spiralled out of control due to terrible decisions.

What's next? Getting tasered for jay-walking? That's illegal too. How about tasering folks driving while talking on their cell phones. Double parking on The Avenue definately deserves a taser. Maybe they librians can taser you for bringing books back late.

I love Greenwich & it's been my hometown for all of my 40 years. I usually give Greenwich the benefit of the doubt, and I've been upset by some of the frivolus lawsuits this town has endured (i.e. sledding accident guy), but in this instance, I hope this kid's family sues.

Here is a little note to the photographer and writer of this article. Stop making this kid out to being a victim, he is a repeat offender and should have gotten a billy club to his head to knock some sense into him. As for traumatized kids, fights happen daily in high school, it is a part of growing up. It's all you filthy liberals that are making a mountain out of mole hill.

too much violence

It is a disgrace that School Administrators encouraged the use of a Taser upon a student by having it available for use in the first place.
A taser should only be used to avoid deadly force, and for no other reason. I hope the kid gets a good lawyer!

Robert Harmon wrote:

<quoted text>
if you have read closely this kid is not from a well to do family

To Robert Harmon - I didn't say he was from a "well to do family", it's the general thinking of these kids in this environment at a school in Greenwich. Wealthy or not, he didn't have the right to throw a chair and resist an officer's direction. And you better believe there's going to be a lawsuit! That's the norm for anything like this - hope they lose!

This was merely some macho teen trying to show how much of a bad as# he was in front of his friends? He was taught a very valuable life lesson. When the Police tell you to do something, do it! Right or wrong, you can fight it another day and another way, but in the immediate situation, they will win. I would much rather some wise as# get's zapped to control a situation than have no Police Officers in the school. Do any of you remember COLUMBINE, or VIRGINIA TECH? While an Officer stationed in the school may not 100% prevent situations like those from occurring, they certainly will limit the damage, and may very well prevent it. I'll guarantee you the victims families of those, and other school and workplace mass shootings, would have preferred to have had a Police Officer assigned to their schools. Lets not have a Greenwich Police Department bash session here folks. Realize what the situation really was, teenage bravado gone too far. The young man is 18,he reacted violently to an Officers commands in a room full of students, and the Police Officers did a commendable job in quickly controlling the situation and limiting their, and yes, the suspects chance of bodilly injury or worse.

REMEMBER THIS FOLKS!! A STAMFORD POLICE OFFICER RECENTLY DIED FROM INJURIES SUFFERED IN THE LINE OF DUTY. THE INJURIES THIS BRAVE OFFICER SUSTAINED WERE FROM BREAKING UP A FIGHT BETWEEN MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS!!! SHE MAY VERY WELL BE ALIVE TODAY HAD SHE HAD A TASER AVAILABLE TO HER TO PREVENT THIS.

At the Greenwich Police Station, if you get arrested at the age of 18, they don't ask your parents to come in, so why were they waiting for his parents to arrive at the High School? They didn't look for them before they tased him!
It's going to take time for everyone in Greenwich to see that if the cops want respect from these teens, they are going to have to take the chip off their shoulders and try to give a little respect back!
They need training on how to talk to them to begin with, something they don't get trained on at the Police Academy.
The police like to believe that these kids are badder than they are.
My son is 18, and at this High School, he has Asthma, if they had tased him, I would be highly pissed off.
There was a death in CT from a guy getting tased by police already.
Throwing water balloons, and chairs can be dangerous but they could have restrained him without the taser.

You disobey a police officer's commands, you pay the price. End of story. There's no two ways around it.

In my high school, an announcement would have been made over the intercom requesting that the offending student go to the Principal's office. No need for security or police. If the student left school or slid out back door...who cares. He must still report to Principal and satisfy punishment before being allowed to attend classes. This approach seems to make student responsible for his/her actions, where, I think, it appropriately belongs. And this reduces risk of other harms resulting from confrontation with Police/security. Is the Greenwich high school so dangerous and adminstrators so powerless, that Police officers must be on campus?

Life Long Resident wrote:

At the Greenwich Police Station, if you get arrested at the age of 18, they don't ask your parents to come in, so why were they waiting for his parents to arrive at the High School? They didn't look for them before they tased him!
It's going to take time for everyone in Greenwich to see that if the cops want respect from these teens, they are going to have to take the chip off their shoulders and try to give a little respect back!
They need training on how to talk to them to begin with, something they don't get trained on at the Police Academy.
The police like to believe that these kids are badder than they are.
My son is 18, and at this High School, he has Asthma, if they had tased him, I would be highly pissed off.
There was a death in CT from a guy getting tased by police already.
Throwing water balloons, and chairs can be dangerous but they could have restrained him without the taser.

When you are in school you are the schools responsibility so they need to let a parent know if a student is going to leave even if your 18. But as 18 you are an adult. As for the guy who died from a taser he was on drugs. Maybe thats why parents in greenwich are so concerened about the tasers in school. Is there a drug problem????

let everyone see the video.What we all need is to see that video.

lets see the video.....unless it got "lost"

I have been reading through the responses here and I am appalled!First do some research, the taser is ment to be used BEFORE an officer goes to Hands on! Secondly most of the "deaths" associated with the use of a taser are secondary to the use of the taser, this meaning another cause possibly such as narcotics which I know no one in Fairfield County wants to admit would be a problem here but we all need to wake up because heron (being the extreme) is already in our schools, this may serve as a wake up call but its even in middle schools. So before everyone jumps up and down on police use of force do some research for yourself's and know where the specific "weapon" falls in the established standards. Lastly, everyone loves to point out how forceful police are and some (i might be undermining the numbers and probably should be using most) are quick to jump to the conclusion that police use excessive force on an all to regular basis. However this also goes hand in hand with how there is never a police officer around when you need one or how it takes what seems for ever when at 7:55 in the morning people call to complain about construction or the such. The answer isn't judging the established standards, the answer is knowledge and the people who what to jump to conclusions prove that ignorance must actually be bliss.

"What you have to know is he didn't leave the school and come back, they just finished telling him he was suspended, and he came out into the student center to say goodbye to his friends and make plans for later that afternoon"

He is a grown man, its called a telephone. He should have left school like he was supposed to. All because he didn't leave school and resisted arrest he got himself into this mess. The cops tasered him because he resisted arrest and put up a fight with him. What if the cops didn't taser him? They would have done something worse. The boy doesn't need to say goodbye to his friends, he was gossiping in the student center. If he is 18 he should grow up a little bit. Its not only the water baloons in the student center, its the throughing of the chairs all the other crap he has done too. He put people in danger.