Should this 8 year-old have been pepper sprayed by police?

While not everyone will agree, I don't actually fault the police for this. This is a 8 year old boy with serious anger issues, this was the third time police have been called out for his violent outbursts. He was spitting, throwing chairs, and threatening to kill everyone with a sharp piece of molding.

While there has been a bit of controversy, I think the police did what they felt was the lowest risk for the other children and teachers. The mother describes her son as a "normal" 8 year old, and is filing a complaint against the police. I'm not a child psychologist, but certainly, don't feel that could be considered normal behavior.

What do you think?

 

Where there no other options aside from using the pepper spray? Not really sure since I haven't tried getting myself pepper sprayed but I reckon that wouldn't be obviously pleasant to an eight year old kid. While I also don't blame the police for it, they should have at least thought of other ways of restraining the child instead of using such.

 

I think the mother of all bitch slaps would have solved the problem but then again the police might have been accused of "brutally assaulting an innocent child"

So paper spray for the kid and a big ass fine for the kuku mother should do the job .

 

extraordinary problems require extraordinary solutions

 

I might be going out on a limb here, but I suspect the police should have headed to the boy's home and pepper sprayed the parents, and likely more specifically the mother.

When I was coming up, I would have been heavily sanctioned (Restrictions, loss of toys, etc) after the first such public outburst came to the attention of my parents. A second such outburst would have more than likely wound up with an "ass whoopin", which would have prevented a third such outburst where I might have said something really really stupid like "I probably deserved it". Then again, if the parents had any kind of discipline in the house, there would have been no first such outburst.

So in answer to your question, no I don't think the police did anything wrong, but I'm also not a big believer in the innate evilness of certain people, especially 8 year olds. It especially pisses me off that incompetent parents create little monsters that become the burden of society. Why are my tax dollars having to go to the police to pepper spray this kid, when the parents could be doing that at home? Its the type of thing that makes me think about the requirement of licenses and exams before becoming a parent. It definitely makes the argument for corporal punishment of your own children. Better you than the police.

 

Considering the school districts past history the mother seems more a problem than her son.

 

if they wanted to make a martyr of the boy, they should have nailed his ass to a piece of wood and made him carry it up the hill first.

 

Lol , now that would have been an awesome headline : Police pepper spray and fine mother for brat's behavior .

 

Of course there were other options! I'm quite sure the officer was carrying a taser, a baton, and a pistol.

 

or some sweet donut inside the pocket.

 

That might have worked. If the donut was rock-hard stale, and the officer had good aim. It's possible they could of knocked him out cold with it.

 

The contraversy dat made this issue big..n boy must b harrashed by police..

 

No, faulting the police may not salve the situation but because the child does take responsibility for his behavior there is a reason the police should be responsible for their actions and trained against knee-jerk reactions. An 8 year old should not be able to intimidate grown adults, the police and violence seldom is the best solution - they are paid to be reserved and thoughtful as the appropriate procedure.

 

Agree with O'nation. The kid had it coming, and frankly using pepper spray was using less force than knocking the little brat unconscious... Which I'm pretty sure my dad would have done to me had I threatened a teachers life. The kid should have been kicked out of the school district permanently and the parents told to handle educating him theirself since they failed to instill any discipline in him to start with. Eight yr olds are old enough to know you don't threaten others lives. Learning boundaries should start at home long before age 8.

I used to have anywhere from 10 -30 boys from 1st -6th grade in weekly meetings for a group somewhat like boy scouts... And 8 yr olds are perfectly capable of being responsible guys or pure monsters. Parents set the trend. I got better results from some problem kids than their parents did because it was clear up front what the boundaries were and what'd happen if they crossed them.

The ONLY time those prone to trouble got out of line was when we did an activity at which their parents were present. I could always tell if I'd like the parents just by seeing how the kid behaved. Parents that fail to require proper behavior from their kids inevitably think everyone else is harsh and they are onto some brilliant and humane parenting plan. They're idiots... enablers that set their children up for disappointment as they find out the rest of the world does not revolve around them despite what mommy says.

As you might guess, my son got to USMC boot camp and laughed at the little wimps that thought the sergeants were too tough. Being held to a standard wasn't new to him, he understood how the system worked before he got there. I pity anyone that has to raise a kid today in an environment where virtually any corporal punishment is viewed as abuse. It's more abusive IMO to fail to instill a realistic picture of the real world and fool them into thinking mom and daddy will always get them out of trouble by explaining their misbehavior away. That's how you get idiots like Bradley manning.

 

In the instances of police involvement their duty is not to represent violence but trained response and particularly when involved with children. As stated above their upbringing may be the problem that trained personnel should be fully aware of in not aggravating the issue into the future.

The offense by Aidan deserves (very) serious repercussions that by his own admission should be administered and his understanding of it to his credit.

Using Pepper spray twice on an eight year old shows poor judgment if nothing else.

 

Since it wasn't the first time things like this happend I suppose you can blame the mother for not taking action
and trying to solve the problems instead of just denying it.

Sure, pepperspray might have been a bit too much since he's just a kid. But hopefully he learned to not behave like
that in the future now. However, if he has something like ADHD it will probably not be tha last time he does something like this.

 

I don't see anything that indicates ADHD. But, something is very wrong. Not many 8 years olds go ballistic, take-over their classroom, throw chairs, spit at classmates and teachers, and threaten to kill everyone with a make-shift weapon. I think they decided to use pepper spray because there is less of a chance for injury, than if they were to tackle him. When the boy was interviewed he said, "I just get angry a lot." That should be a red flag to his mother. Yet, it appears that instead of encouraging personal responsibility, she's blaming the school, blaming the police...Hopefully, he'll get some help to deal with his anger.

 

Ye, I didn't mean that he actually ad ADHD, I just meant that he must have some anger management disorder or similar that triggered what he did.

 

and I would have loved to have seen that happen!

 

ADHD is just an excuse for a parent or parents who have no control over their kids... This excuse is used far too easily and too often.