Taser incident shocks students - Greenwich Time

Tasering students is wrong. Tasers should not be allowed on school grounds. The tasering in this case is a complete abuse of power. The school administrators and Betty Sternberg should remove the school resource officers from the school, permanently. Alan Capasso needs to rethink his diciplinary approach. Suspending students for minor pranks is excessive. This whole incident is a shameful example of how our children are being treated in the school system.

Old Greenwich wrote:

Tasering students is wrong. Tasers should not be allowed on school grounds. The tasering in this case is a complete abuse of power. The school administrators and Betty Sternberg should remove the school resource officers from the school, permanently. Alan Capasso needs to rethink his diciplinary approach. Suspending students for minor pranks is excessive. This whole incident is a shameful example of how our children are being treated in the school system.

Tasering students is not wrong, if the student does not comply with what a police officer is instructing him to do. If you read the article, the kid didn't respond or do anything that the officer instructed him to do. Also, if you do not know, an officer was taken to the hospital for brain hemmoraging that happened at a call from an irate man. Now knowing what "can" happen, they are more aware of what to do for their safety, because all the cops wnt to do is come home to their family, and if it was tasing the student, then thats what had to be done.

Also, brought up in another article, the Greenwich Time totally give you a different side from that of what the Police Report says. So not all the information in the paper may be accurate.

If you were a cop, and someone tried to assault you and started kicking chairs around you and he didnt do what you wanted him to do .. and with the knowledge of what can happen (getting injured in the line of duty).... what would you do? Getting physical is the last thing I would do..... notice ow in the other article, it states that the zap was for less than a second ... not like it was used for 10 minutes....

If the teen couldn't co-operate and was confrontational then he deserved to be tasered. As a 4th generation Greenwichite..........this isn't Greenwich the way it used to be. Everyone is demanding and confrontational and feels they are owed. Well the police are owed too and what they did was use reasonable force on someone who refused to obey the rules

This is yet another example of excessive force used on (minority and male) adolescents for doing nothing more than exhibiting adolescent behavior. You should see the "senior pranks" in other countries' high schools as an example. Throwing water balloons should be overlooked. But even if the kids are stopped, no police should be involved. Administrators and teachers can handle this.

It is fairly simple, do not resist and you will not be tasered. I have no issue at all with how the police acted here.

What the student did was criminal, so it's no longer a teacher/school matter it's a police matter. He was suspended and returned to school grounds when he had no right to be there, that's trespass. He was asked to leave, he became threatening, that's assault. He threw chairs around the room and became confrontational, that's physical harm also known as battery.

What the policeman did was use reasonable force to control the individual, and well within his given skills as an officer. The only problem here is students and parents living in Greenwich live sheltered lives where things like this rarely occur and it's something to complain about.

What does Judge Judy think? Would she be happy if her Grandson got zapped. From now on we should just implant a node in every high schooler. When they act up with water balloons or break "the LAW" they can be made to submit with a push of the button.

Amazing you have the cops on a call to confront a mental patient and they choose not to taser. Cop in hospital with brain injuries. Confront a high school shrimp sized punk and give him the zap.

Poor training and poor canidates for the job make for injured cops and lawsuits we as taxpayers will bear.

Police work for DUMMIES is available at Borders.

Wow, water balloons- wonder what the principal would have done if he put a volkswagon beetle in the student center?????

What a JOKE the poor little student… Let’s not forget he is 18yrs old and this all started because of his actions right or wrong. If he had just complied with the Officer’s request NONE of this would have happened. Why should the Officer take a chance on getting himself injured by grappling around with someone remember the student is only 18… I was 18 once and Uncle Sam tapped me on the shoulder along with a lot of other 18 year olds and we went to war. At 18 you’re not a boy and should be responsible for your actions

Well, first of all he just finished getting suspended, and was leaving the school after the punishment was made, until the cops started hassling him telling him to go to the administrators office when he just wanted to leave the school in general. For 3 cops and security there too, they still needed to taser him?? does that sound right to you?? and it wasn't just a minor 1 second taser they did it more than it was said on the paper.

Concerned Reader wrote:

What the student did was criminal, so it's no longer a teacher/school matter it's a police matter. He was suspended and returned to school grounds when he had no right to be there, that's trespass. He was asked to leave, he became threatening, that's assault. He threw chairs around the room and became confrontational, that's physical harm also known as battery.
What the policeman did was use reasonable force to control the individual, and well within his given skills as an officer. The only problem here is students and parents living in Greenwich live sheltered lives where things like this rarely occur and it's something to complain about.

What the kid did was not criminal. But a narrow-minded cop treated an angry kid is if he was a criminal. He used a weapon, yes, a weapon, on that kid that has resulted in the deaths of many people. Tasers can kill you, and there is plenty of data suggesting that it does. What would you be saying if the kid had suffered a heart attack and died? Would you still call this kid, whose run-in was precipitated by nothing more than engaging in a senior day prank, a criminal? Would you say that his death was justified?

The cop walked up to him, stuck his taser in the kid's chest and fired three electric shocks into his body. Is that the way our kids are supposed to be treated? Is that the way Greenwich High School is supposed to deal with kids who get angry? Should every kid having a bad day who kicks a chair be subjected to electric shocks?

The school and the police should be ashamed of themselves. That school is one of the safest in the country. Yet a perverse mentality has taken hold that treats it and its students as dangerous potential criminals who need to be controlled.

Regarding the "sheltered lives" comment, let's keep in mind that the crime rate amongs the town's youth is extremely low. So whether or not they've been "sheltered" or not, they certainly aren't criminals. Yet it appears that the police treat the town's youth as though they think they've got it coming to them because they've been sheltered. It's precisely that chip on their collective shoulder about which the youth in this town have been complaining for years. And it is precisely that bad relationship that was the motivating for bringing in the police officer in the first place: to "improve the relationship between the town's youth and the police." Well, that strategy lies in tatters now.

Concerned Reader wrote:

What the student did was criminal, so it's no longer a teacher/school matter it's a police matter. He was suspended and returned to school grounds when he had no right to be there, that's trespass. He was asked to leave, he became threatening, that's assault. He threw chairs around the room and became confrontational, that's physical harm also known as battery.
What the policeman did was use reasonable force to control the individual, and well within his given skills as an officer. The only problem here is students and parents living in Greenwich live sheltered lives where things like this rarely occur and it's something to complain about.

Perhaps the fact that he wanted to return to school should have been taken into account by the headmaster. What on earth was he thinking to suspend that kid for an entire week for nothing more serious than throwing a water balloon?

It is precisely because there is a police officer stationed there that so many behavioral problems are not treated as they should be: as immature students who can be emotional and who deserve to be treated with compassion and understanding by adult educators and administrators, but as violations of the law which are treated with the harshest measures, including arrest and prosecution.

He threw a water balloon! It is very clearly the school administration that is out of control here. There should be a hearing about this and about whether or not the police should continue to be stationed at Greenwich High School.

think again wrote:

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Perhaps the fact that he wanted to return to school should have been taken into account by the headmaster. What on earth was he thinking to suspend that kid for an entire week for nothing more serious than throwing a water balloon?

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, when security and an officer came to make sure he left that second and when he was going to leave the premises they then told him that he had to wait for his parents, he's 18 years old, he should've been able to left when he wanted to.

A tough lesson there, Victor. Time to wise up. If you want the privleges and rights of being an 18 year old adult, then take the consequences for you're actions like a man. Sounds to me like you don't have a male figure in your life. Time to find one.

Greenwich Taser Incident: Most people hear "student" and think the police can just talk these kids down...well people, take a look at the "students" today...they are "BIG". Big as adults....you try talking them down....the police are there are were called to stop a disturbance....that's their job....if you want a counselor, then call a counselor....you're only kidding yourself if you think these Big kids can be just talked to. They don't know enough to back off and be quiet when a policeman gives them an order....they think that would be a sign of weakness and they've got to show their friends they're MACHOMAN. Get real folks. That's what you're paying the police to do so you don't have to confront these "kids".

I feel as if were forgetting that he threw some balloons. Kids have let mice loose in Greenwich High School and people were stepping on them. Many of the were killed. I remember one year kids were going around stabbing random people with needles. Some kids got a little wet from this senior prank. No action was taken with the other pranks. This is a good kid. I am a girl that attended Greenwich High school. I would have been incredibly offended is an officer came to me about throwing water balloons. Its easy to listen to what the police say and judge victor but anyone who knows him knows this is messed up. Yes he reacted in a way that he "shouldn't have" but he never should have been reprimanded for water balloons. As someone just said he came back to say goodbye to his friends. I could write pages on how I feel about this issue but I wont waste your time, since it seems like most of you are already just judging people from what you hear. and to "passion" he needs to find a male figure to have in his life? shut up. who are you to say that.

Oh please! You Greenwich people are crazy. An officer got hurt last week restraining an older man, not an 18 year old who is probably stronger. Good for them harnessing the situation and shame on all of you for not thinking about common sense.

This is a very complex issue that Im sure has not been thoroughly explored before it was approved as "policy" Where does one draw the line? And will that line move as the years go by? Are we going to next tase middle school children? and for what offense?
In a world where we dont "spank" children anymore...where its a fine line between "child abuse" and parental "discipline" I think letting the police tase them is outrageous!
Im not sure what the answer is....maybe a pat on the butt wasnt so bad after all.We did get through childhood and adolescence for years without drugs....therapy.....or tasering....just old fashined discipline.
But...no matter how you look at it....you cant help feeling that some kind of "New World Order" has arrived.

Ok, but this isn't about him being suspended for throwing water balloons. He was suspended, end of story, we could go on forever about how and why. After you are suspended it is unlawful for you to set foot on school grounds if you have no business there. You cannot return until your suspension is over, you can't just come back to say goodbye to your friends.

This is about the need for an officer to taser the person; was it justified? I noted earlier yes, he was tasered for refusing to cooperate and becoming violent (throwing chairs is violent). He was not tasered for throwing water balloons.