GHS student tased - Greenwich Time

All I could think while reading the article was, well the kid must have been big, and therefore the officers probably needed a little help to subdue him.(I also assume there were at least three officers, since the article stated that "additional officers arrived".)
The end of the article stunned me: the kid is 140 pounds. Three officers can't arrest a 140-pound kid without using a weapon that was designed to replace firearms?

Kicked a chair? Verbally abusive? 140 pounds? This boy had to be tased? Three grown men couldn't subdue him? Why didn't they just let him leave the building..?$50,000 bond? Did I miss something?

Seems rather immature and irresponsible on the part of the school to allow a silly balloon-throwing incident to escalate out of control like this: What do tasers, arrests, and court appearances have to do with educating our children?

Tased for throwing water balloons? Suspended for throwing water balloons was ridiculous enough... When I went to GHS they had no tasers, no security cameras and the senior pranks involved letting chickens and crickets into the student center. Nobody was suspended then. This is disgusting and disgraceful and I am ashamed at this moment to call GHS my alma mater.

Um, has anyone else noticed there appears to be a police state developing in these united states? This is a continuing abomination. We get lied into wars, send in Bubba with tanks and machine guns to remove 416 children from their mothers based on unsubstantied anonymous phone calls, and now we have Greenwich cops tasing a 140 pound kid for failure to obey. Will brainless parents and school administrators continue to allow these weapons in school or will they continue their jobs of producing passive, obedient slaves to the state? We the people better wake up soon.

Lets face the fact here that fact that tazing a kid at the high school is a weenie move to do. From what your article mentioned the boy originally threw water balloons and then resisted the school security and eventually the shooter(police). At that point in a 18 year olds body the testosterone fired up and he resented all authority. It happens, people. Just like kids drinking, smoking the herb and listening to Rock and Roll. All of which I bet some of you readers enjoyed.
I don't know if the shooter(police) is small, but it seems that the choice to draw down on a high school student is cowardly. What happened to police being fit and trained to take anyone into custody? I watched an officer with one leg on the show cops chase and take down a large suspect. Now that is what you do when you have balls like grapefruits and one leg.
Maybe all police do not need to have nuts the size of fruits that come from some warm climate. But I think the shooter(police) should have done some sort of karate or Spock(Star Trek) kind of move.
These weapons (Tazers) are perfect for controlling those on meth or catching someone all freaked out on the angel dust. Heck in those situations, I am in favor of police putting a bullet in the right place...maybe not at the high school though. I would be in favor of nets. What is the big deal about a headline "Water Balloon Chucker Netted at High School."
Let's get real. I don't want the police to be mad at me for writing. I think they do a tremendous job and we are safe here in this great town. Not everybody can say that across Connecticut, the US and the Earth. We are lucky here. When I see these tazer things on TV it seems sometimes they do not fit the situation. In my town's high school it's downright embarrassing.
I think the 50K Bond is a little steep too. I hear electricity, even at the low voltage setting, reduces testosterone. The student at this point now, wearing his orange suit in bridgeport, with some other balloon throwing resisters has calmed down and is now submitting to authority and hopefully nothing else.
This one is going to cost the town. Some Attorney is going to step up and go probono on this. Roy Black or Mickey Sherman are you busy?
My last comment would be directed at how the other brave boys in blue on the force might feel. I believe there probably are a few that would have done a leg sweep and before another word came out of this punk's mouth, the cuffs would be on. Go directly to jail, do not pass the principals office. No story, no lawsuit, no drama. Bottom line this kid was a punk looking for trouble after he got caught throwing water balloons. The other water balloon scofflaws got away with their prank. He was an idiot and bad at it.
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. He who feels it knows it. Kids and people learn a lesson. If the police tell you to do something, just do it. Otherwise prepare to face defeat.

I feel the officer was in his rights to do what he did.

Obviously, the statement(s) that were in the paper came out to that he was resisting. And after the officer the other day had to go to the ICU, officers are now more concerned about their safety, now knowing what can happen if they do not use force back.

It was definitely justified for the officer to tase, because the officer did that for his safety and the other students' safety.

Looks like y'all cowboyed up to control an unruly student. This is so disappointing.

I was born and raised in Greenwich and have always assumed that Greenwich schools take the high road when it comes to student discipline. I've lived in Texas for quite some time where corporal punishment in school is still allowed. I had hope Texas would change their minds and be more like Connecticut. Now, I am not so sure.

Hope more staff training and increased parental involvement is on the agenda.

Sad state of affairs when we need to put such unnecessary weapons in the hands of the school "police." Give these people the power and sure enough it will get abused. The force was excessive and the school and town end up lookng like in inner-city nightmare. I read the article in california, so don't think this incident is a limited, local affair. The school should apologize and the weapons taken away.

These police are taser crazy. Tasing the kid three times at close range, really? Why are there police in the school and why on earth are they tasing kids that kick chairs and throw water baloons? This officer should be put on desk duty or possibly thrown off the force. How soon before a cop shoots a kid at school with a real gun? Greenwich Police should bow their heads in shame. This is a dark day for public schools when a student is assaulted by a cop for a minor offense.

Sure. Blame the police you idiots. The officers would not have to have become involved at all if the kid was doing as he was told. The only mistake this cop made was trying to deescalate the situation by drive-stunning the imbecile for a second or two instead of shooting him with the taser darts and letting him "ride the lightning" for the full five second deployment.

What would all of you preferred the officer have done, not deploy the taser and manhandle the kid? Beat him into submission? Break one of his arms or bust open his head in a knock-down, drag-out fight? With who knows how many other kids present in the lunch area to get hurt in a melee? If that had occurred, you all would have angrily demanded to know why this criminal wasn't safely subdued with a taser.

You ungrateful buffoons blithely live your lives under the blanket of protection the police provide yet are always so quick to judge the manner in which it is provided. Wake up. Stop blame-shifting. This entire incident was precipitated by the student's willful violation(s) of law. This young criminal, when he failed to obey the officer's lawful orders, made his bed and then had to lie in it. Boo Hoo.

PS - Cops aren't paid to fight fair. They are paid to win.

If you don't go to the office, you get tased.

In response to 'cynical cop.' There needs to be a line. This boy posed no threat to anyone and was not willfully violating any law. The rules of the school perhaps but what crime was he committing? Students of GHS beware, forget your hall pass and you may get tased.

I definitely agree that this kid needed to be tased! Years ago, students were impressed or should I say the word "afraid" to get into trouble and had respect for the teachers and other students. Nothing bothers these kids now and it takes something like this to maybe make the next "wiseguy" listen when he's told to stop! No, schools have not become a "police state." It's these kids who think they can get away with anything and it's the stupid parents who defend their actions and say "my child wouldn't do that" when in fact they DO! Parenst today don't care what thekids are doing as long as they aren't bothering them. There's no interest at all. The ONLY time the parents get involved is when they pick up the phone, call the attorney and start a lawsuit - which you know will be next. Wise up everybody - there needs to be action taken against all this disrespect for school policy, rules and infractions and if it takes a taser, then so be it! If he had stopped in his tracks and listened to the authorities, this would not have happened - so it's his fault! Nuff said!

Dude! The kid was no threat? He kicked a chair that went flying and hit another chair that a student was sitting in. Since when is it OK to kick a chair with that much force in a crowded cafeteria or student hall, whatever that is? That kid definitely needed a time out. Thinking he could do that because he felt like it is what comes of the wetnursing we've got in our school system. And it's showing up all over the country. Time to let the teachers take little Johnny back by the woodshed and teach him what manners and respect are about. It's obvious his parents haven't done it.

This is not Russia.

How about reading the police report rather than go with the idiot's version that the Greenwich Time printed? You're judging the situation based upon one skewed side. How about checking the student's arrest record? I'm sure it will be very revealing.

What? Checking all the facts before I open my mouth? What a unique concept in Greenwich!

Spoiled little buffoon deserved a little jolt. Follow the rules or get out. Good for the fine state of Texas for allowing corporal punishment. Tase the scions if they won't follow rules. Maybe if the "parents" would take their heads out of a certain place and instill(yeah,right...)a modicum of respect and discipline it wouldn't have occurred in the first place. What can you expect from adults who have grown up giving "Johnnie" time outs so he can go his room and watch tv or surf the internet. What a complete failure most modern day parents truly are.
Why didn't you just adopt a cat from the pound. At least when you didn't want it anymore you could have returned it.
I'm sure Daddy has already consulted with his attorney. What a sick and distorted world in which we live.

Let's be clear here: a police officer decided to shoot a kid in the neck with a wire from a taser, then administer three electric shocks that immobilized him. And this dangerous kid was 140 pounds? He was skinny as a rail, and he was leaving the school anyway. Yet the police officer followed him out and tasered him. That is brutal, cruel, and insane.

Let's be clear why there is a police officer stationed at GHS in the first place: to improve the relationship between the youth of Greenwich and the police. No joke: that was the justification. Yet in the first full school year in which police were stationed there, police officers arrested fully 54 students, or 2% of the student body. In the first two months of this school year, they arrested another half dozen on campus. And that doesn't count several more who were arrested for drinking at parties in private houses. How exactly does this serve to improve the relationship between police and youth?

The school is being turned into a correctional facility: hundreds of thousands of dollars have already been spent to put surveillance cameras in every nook and cranny of the school, both inside and outside. Let's keep in mind here that Greenwich High School is the public school for one of the safest and wealthiest communities in the United States. And the high school has a suspension rate that is one of the lowest in the state of Connecticut. So a rational person has got to ask why so many kids are being arrested in this school in such a prosperous and low-crime community.

Let's see: the kid throws a water balloon and gets suspended..for a week? That right there is excessive. Then he has a bad day and throws a chair, gets three electric shocks administered to his neck, then is held on- get this-$50,000 bail. Now I'm not a lawyer, but it would seem that a hardened criminal who is arrested for knocking over a liquor store is in line for bail of $50k, not a high school student who threw a water balloon.

Clearly, GHS is being administered by an increasingly out of control administration that cannot understand that kids who get unruly are, well, still kids, and not hardened criminals. And if the BOE and headmaster think that tasering a kid is perfectly acceptable, I'd like to see them volunteer to be tasered like the student was. I'm guessing that they would demure.

Let's all remember that this is Connecticut, not Alabama. We're supposed to be more enlightened and rational in this land of steady habits. This tasering incident should serve as a wake-up call for rational parents and the board of education.

We're better than this, and our kids should not be put in danger of being shot by a taser-wielding police officer in connection with an offense as puny as throwing a water balloon.

Creepy authoritarians like this are the ones who give cops a bad name. He thinks failure to obey is a "willful violation of The Law" and his list of alternatives to the taser are very revealing of where he's coming from.