Lawsuit: Deputy used stun gun on non-verbal autistic boy

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Updated 4:01 pm CDT, Saturday, August 11, 2018

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A federal lawsuit alleges that a Louisiana sheriff's deputy on school duty shocked a non-verbal, autistic 10th-grader with a stun gun, then left him lying in his own urine until an emergency crew arrived 13 minutes later.

The boy has been afraid even to let his family go out of a room without him since the incident last Aug. 31, according to the lawsuit filed Aug. 1 in Shreveport against Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator.

The lawsuit alleges that deputies patrolling schools had little to no training on handling people with disabilities until about a month after the alleged incident.

The boy's mother, Rosie Philips, didn't sue the deputy or the school board because she's trying to correct problems behind the alleged incident, attorney Garret DeReus of New Orleans said Thursday.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/education/article/Lawsuit-Deputy-used-stun-gun-on-non-verbal-13149272.php

[Iggo]

1. Cops. That's who they are. That's what they do.

[leftofcool]

2. That is unfair. Not all cops are like that.

They need more training to deal with disabilities

[alphafemale]

3. ALL COPS. Continue to allow sadists to wear badges and turn blind eyes.

ALL COPS.

[FrodosNewPet]

13. Too bad progressives don't want to be cops

We gotta have cops. Someone has to direct traffic at accident scenes. Someone has to investigate rape, robbery, murder, domestic violence, etc. Someone has to pull over speeders and drunk drivers before they kill innocents.

It would be great if it were smart, sane, kind people who respect the rights and lives of innocents.

[jb5150]

4. There are 2 kinds of cops .....

the bad ones, and the ones that look the other way ... there are no good cops.

[radical noodle]

7. There are good cops

You hear about the bad ones and the ones who look the other way. Seldom do you hear about the good ones.

BTW, I imagine there are also Democratic good cops.

[duhneece]

12. Thank you

My daughter is in law enforcement in Lubbock Texas and is a Democrat and a good person, a model of a keeper of the peace.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

5. Stop putting police officers in schools.

What we need in schools is people who are trained to de-escalate a situation. People with the appropriate training in child psychology and special education, as more and more children are mainstreamed. Cops are never going to be those people. And far too many cops are nothing but power-tripping, sadistic thugs wearing a badge, a uniform and a gun, who have benefitted from the thin blue line for too many years and too many infractions.

Children are not (usually) criminal elements. They are just kids. Still growing physically, mentally, emotionally and intellectually. Of course, they are going to challenge authority. Who among us didn't as a young teen ? That's what kids do. We used to get detention. Now kids get body-slammed and handcuffed. Ask yourself, what is this teaching our children ?

I'm not anti-cop, but I have been steadily losing my respect for police when they treat children like hardened criminals on parole. I think it started with the video of the white cop (who had to weigh at least 280) snatching up the young black girl (90 pounds maybe ?)
from her desk and slamming her to the floor then viciously manhandling her. What kind of thought process says that that is the appropriate way to deal with a child ? Additionally, it is a fact that far more children of color are handled harshly by cops than white kids. What is this teaching our children of color ? And what does it say to the white children watching ?

Tasers were NEVER designed to be used on children. They were a tool to control and subdue violent adults. Any cop who uses a taser on a child should be immediately put on administrative leave (with pay) while the incident is investigated. Careful consideration of re-assignment should be weighed before placing that person back on the job, and they should NEVER be assigned school duty again. They have validated that they are incapable of controlling a situation with children in an appropriate manner.

[radical noodle]

6. Schools do need police officers for other things

but you're right, discipline shouldn't be their job but there are times that they're needed. My daughter is an inclusion/special ed teacher for upper elementary classes and my husband taught for 40+ years. There are kids who are big and strong and some of them can be angry and/or mean. No teacher or student should have to risk being injured badly by a student.

In addition, a child was almost kidnapped from my daughter's school a week ago and the principal and the police officer on the scene stopped it in time. This is a small rural school, so I can only imagine what large schools go through on a daily basis.

I don't disagree with your analysis of the case you talked about, nor do I disagree about tasers... but you need to understand that some kids are big and powerful and in the right circumstances could be a danger to others. To some, detention is a joke.

Better training is key.

[heaven05]

8. it's teaching children of color

to fear and hate cops, white cops particularly. Violent arrest of 'threatening' children of colour is the staple of white cops in amerika. If not on the streets in plain sight, for damn sure at the station house. For all the cop apologists who feel violence against an 11-year-old or shootings of 11-year-old students is the way to go, go for it. EVERT time an incident like this shows up a lot more people than I suspect show up saying, especially if the 'perp' is AA or a POC, they don't blame the cop, they blame the unarmed and most times innocent and, as in this case, challenged individual. "They should have complied with orders", "they were disrespectful" ect, ect add nauseum. Taser, usually 50,000 watts of electrical current capable of causing heart attacks in adults used on an 11-year-old?!!! No excuse. period. Yet I understand those black kids can be so disrespectful to their white bett---err, mast...err, teachers and cops.

[jb5150]

10. If a parent did to a child what school cops have done,

they would be arrested and charged with a crime.

[karin_sj]

9. This is just horrific

I am speechless

[dembotoz]

11. cop who has no training or understanding put in a situation with kid being whacky

at least he did not shoot him

depends on what the kid was doing...were other kids in harms way?
a 10th grader can be a large kid...

we used to have special schools for kids that were not normal.
it was decided this was bad and now such kids are more included.

the downside of included means that classes now have kids that are not all there.
kids in classrooms these days see behaviors that i never would have seen when i was in school.

if we are going to burn this cop at the stake, include some other folks like the cop shopa and school administration that put him in this situation in the first place