Police pepper-spray eight-year-old boy throwing a tantrum

Police pepper-spray violent eight-year-old boy

Wency Leung

Globe and Mail Update

Posted on Wednesday, April 6, 2011 1:34PM EDT

What’s the appropriate way to calm an eight-year old who’s throwing a violent temper tantrum? Talk him down? Send him to the principal’s office? Pepper-spray him – twice?

Police in Lakewood, Colo., opted for the latter tactic to subdue Aiden Elliot after the second-grader threatened teachers and students with a piece of wooden wall trim, which he held like a knife.

“I kind of blow up a little,” the boy admitted to ABC News. “I said I’m going to kill you....”

Aidan, who is in a class for children with behavioural problems, said his teachers had put him in a corner for acting rowdy, and had called his mother. His confinement enraged him.

According to the Associated Press, when asked whether he really intended to injure anyone, Aidan responded: “A little.”

“I kind of deserved it,” he acknowledged.

Aidan’s mother Mandy Elliot said she is upset with the school, and is filing a complaint against the police.

“Why didn’t they talk to him?” she said. Or, we wonder, remove the stick from his hand? How hard can it be to disarm an 8-year-old?

“He was red, handcuffed, crying screaming how much it burned,” she said.

Ms. Elliot added that her son only acts out at school, and is never violent at home with babysitters and family members, nor is he violent at his soccer and swimming activities.

Police defended their decision, saying the situation forced them to act quickly and that no one was injured. School officials, meanwhile, told the press they’ve been seeing more elementary and pre-school students behaving violently, and are concerned about the problem.

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Comment by Andy Anduer on April 15, 2011 at 6:56am: The Bible is a great book for instruction on righteousness. It's better than Dr. Spoke.

Comment by Andy Anduer on April 15, 2011 at 2:16am: You cannot use pepper spray or tazers on kids, Period.

Administering corporal punishment first without talking or probing only drives the bad behavior deeper, only to surface again later. Each situation is judged on it's own merits

Comment by Sweettina2 on April 13, 2011 at 4:24pm: And I agree, if you dont have children, dont tell me how to raise my kids.

Comment by Sweettina2 on April 13, 2011 at 4:22pm: That's right Isaac! Another of the proper elite telling us how to manage our lives, until they kill us off.

I have two grown children, Tara, and they are fine people today. Did they throw fits, sometimes, and I handled it. Never had to pepper spray them once. I also helped raise about 9 other boys around here when my son was coming up. If they had ever been pepper sprayed I would have put my boot up their ass....pure and simple, you F with my kid, it will be hell to pay.

Comment by Isaac Dus on April 13, 2011 at 2:51pm: Also, the spanking is directed at the wrong being, I tell! E-moth

Comment by Isaac Dus on April 13, 2011 at 2:50pm: I tell you this; there has to be a better way to die from boredom, please, there is a rail, get a grip E-moth

Comment by Nikki on April 13, 2011 at 12:23am: I just received this article through email: Classroom Discipline: Why Don't Students Respect their Teachers?

http://www.lewrockwell.com/dyke/dyke10.1.html

The point is, school sucks and the kids know it.

Comment by Nikki on April 12, 2011 at 11:39pm: Jude, my point exactly. If he had the parenting classes first, non of that would likely have happened. There's a lot of damaged people and they have no idea how to raise a child so they just do what their parents did and the cycle continues. And as far as that goes, most people don't know the first thing about child care unless they grew up in a large family. When I was younger and traveled abroad, I noticed how differently foreigners acted with their children compared with Americans and how well behaved the kids were. It always stuck with me.

Comment by Jude on April 12, 2011 at 11:28pm: Nikki, your confusing child abuse with discipline. My wife was brought up in an abusive home. Some of the stuff she told me about what her father did to their mother, her and her siblings really pissed me off. Unfortunately, I had to deal with her brother abusing his son in like manner. I walked in on him shaking and choking his 2 year old son simply because he pooped his pants. Needless to say I came unglued, but my wife got to him first. He was arrested and his mother took him while he went through anger management and parenting classes. We later brought him down here to Texas where he has done much better now that he is an adult.

Comment by Nikki on April 12, 2011 at 11:27pm: Jude, sorry to hear it and glad the Texas schools were better, this is good info to know. Unfortunately, the last few years of my daughter's schooling has been marred by the funding problems, her favorite teachers getting laid off and a noticeable change in the way things were done. She plans to be an ex-pat and says she would never send her own kids to American schools, she wants better for them (if she has some).