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 Nikki on April 8, 2011 at 7:09pm: Jen, so there's an incentive to call the police? I was about to ask Jude why the teachers weren't allowed to discipline the kids and at who's direction - the teachers union or the school board?

My daughter has had private school, public school and two years of home schooling. They each have their flaws. The public school tested her and she is gifted but they failed to do anything for gifted students. I found out that in the past they had done a lot to nurture gifted students but they decided it was unfair to the other students so the program was neutered and I pulled her out since it was a waste of time. Giving extra homework to gifted students is not effective because the kids wonder why they are being punished for being smart. BTW, all her friends who were homeschooled for elementary and middle school decided to enter the system for high school, either public or private.

Comment by Cryptocurrency on April 8, 2011 at 6:44pm: What don't I get Jude?

Comment by Jude on April 8, 2011 at 6:11pm: Hmmm . . . . I think you guys really don't get this one. I raised children in Colorado and had to home school the oldest in order to teach him to read. That was at the advise of one of his teachers who told us he wouldn't learn any thing in the public schools. She was right, the Colorado public schools were some of the worst I had ever seen. When my oldest was in 4th grade they wanted us to test him for ADD because he was acting up in class. I spanked him when he got home and the teacher contacted me asking what I did since was now well behaved. I told her that we gave him an "attitude adjustment". When visiting a classroom, I have personally witnessed children get up and wander around or get books and toys while the teacher was giving a lesson. When told to sit down, they simply ignored her and continued without discipline from the teacher. They are by law forbidden to discipline even if they become aggressive or violent. So you need the police to come in and control the kids from time to time. It's either that or Riddalin.

Comment by Cryptocurrency on April 8, 2011 at 2:20pm: If the parent is stating that the child never acts up at home, perhaps there is something at the school triggering his actions (perhaps a moronic teacher that isn't trained in handling these special needs kids?).

No, it's the sociopathic, brainwashed, little demon hordes he calls his classmates that are probably driving him mad. A room full of ant bullies. Little frickin nazis!

Home school your kids America it's our only hope!

Comment by Cryptocurrency on April 8, 2011 at 2:17pm: I remember a few kids in my third grade class I would have liked to pepper spray! Seriously, disciplining children for violent acts is only teaching them to fight fire with fire. With 6 billion of us wandering around dazed and brainwashed (confused) how long do you think it will take us to burn down the entire planet?

Comment by Argel Tal on April 8, 2011 at 11:47am: lol thats one way to calm a kid down lol.

Comment by Curt Linderman Sr on April 8, 2011 at 10:41am: What the big story here is, is that the school district said that they are seeing this more and more and they are "concerned about the problem". Gee, you demand that they be vaccinated to enter the system (which is why the "special ed" classrooms are getting as big as the standard classrooms, you have flu vaccine clinic in the school where the viruses are shed to these kids already affected by the previous vaccines (the shedding causes PANDAS infection: Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal) which btw, causes extreme behaviors, and last but not least....look at what they feed these kids in school and at home these days. If the parent is stating that the child never acts up at home, perhaps there is something at the school triggering his actions (perhaps a moronic teacher that isn't trained in handling these special needs kids?). Our child was being affected by the cleaner that they used on the desks (he suffers from V.I.R.A.L.S. Vaccine Induced Regressive Autistic-Like Symptoms (I won't use the word "autism" because these kids are poisoned, not genetically "wrong"). When we confronted the school, they said that the cleaner was a "green" cleaner (the only thing green about this cleaner was the actual color of the product in the bottle. My wife looked up the name of the cleaner and found that every single ingredient in the cleaner (other than the water) was either a nuero toxicant or a carcinogen. There could be so many factors involved here but I agree with the main point here...these teachers need to be trained to deal with these kids, as do the cops. With 1 - 69 boys affected with autism in America today, these cops are going to be inundated with socially inept teens and adults very soon. Pepper spray IS NOT THE ANSWER!

Comment by Nikki on April 8, 2011 at 10:15am: I agree Tara. This boy was in a special class for kids with behavioral issues so the teacher should have training to deal with these kinds of problems. And if the teacher needed help, I'm sure a few more adults could have helped restrain him. But they took the cowards way out and called the police.

Comment by Tara on April 8, 2011 at 9:48am: I have an eight year old daughter and I would be livid if some jerk off decided to punish my daughter with pepper spray whether she was being unruly or not. The parents should be the ones to physically discipline the child, not the school nor the police. The police should have been able to restrain an eight year old boy unless he had super powers or something. And then they handcuffed him like he was some kind of criminal. Come on.....they never used pepper spray on us kids when we were young (thank God because I hear it is very unpleasant), but I did have a teacher that used his cane on a few kids and use to throw our desks around with us kids still in them to get our attention. He was an abusive prick. At least the cops were never involved though.

Comment by Jude on April 8, 2011 at 9:29am: In this instance, I have to agree with what the police did. The kid admitted he deserved what he got and he did acknowledge that he intended to harm the teacher. Unfortunately, the Colorado public school system has no discipline and basically do what they want (I know, I raised three kids in Colorado). They will be dealing with this one more in the future, but hopefully, he has a little more fear of the law.