27-Mar-05 20:11

Records: Cops used Tasers against 24 students since 2003

author: Dave Weber, Sun Sentinal

At least 24 Central Florida students have been zapped by Tasers in the past 18 months as police officers working at public schools turned the controversial stun guns on children as young as 12.

At least 24 Central Florida students have been zapped by Tasers in the past 18 months as police officers working at public schools turned the controversial stun guns on children as young as 12.

One child in handcuffs, a teen trying to leave school to visit his sister's grave, and even bystanders who got in an officer's way are among the cases reported in Orange, Seminole, Polk and Brevard counties. Some students were given two or three Taser jolts in quick succession.

Parents whose children have been shocked are outraged.

"This time it was my child. Next time it could be your child," said Theodora Oyelowo, whose son was stung by a police officer's Taser at Lakeland High. "I know we have a lot of troubled kids, but I don't want Tasers in the schools."

School officials say that it's not their business to tell officers how to control sometimes-dangerous incidents on campus, despite rising concern nationally about the safety of Tasers.

"My general approach is that the use of law-enforcement tools is a law-enforcement issue," Orange County Schools Superintendent Ron Blocker said. "Training and judgment will protect all involved."

"I would rather have a Taser available than use deadly force," said Jeanne Morris, chairman of the Seminole County School Board.

Only a few districts in Florida prohibit Taser use at their schools. The state Department of Education does not keep track of how many times the devices have been used on students in public schools.

The Orlando Sentinel reviewed available records on 24 students stunned during the current and previous school year. More than two-thirds of those incidents -- 17 -- occurred in Orange County schools, with Orange County deputy sheriffs pulling the trigger each time.

Sheriff's investigators found that in each case involving deputies, the use of Tasers had been appropriate. The Sanford Police Department also endorsed its officers' use of force in all four cases it reviewed.

"Simply, we meet force with force," said Lt. David Ogden, who heads the training division of the Orange County Sheriff's Office. "The Taser is a very safe and viable tool for us."

Some students can be extremely dangerous, police and school officials say, pointing to such incidents as the one this week in Minnesota, where a high-school student went on a rampage and killed nine others and himself.

But the Taser incidents at Central Florida schools haven't involved gun-waving students. Typically, the stun guns are fired when an officer wades in to break up a fight or confront a student who has misbehaved.

Tasers deliver a 50,000-volt electrical charge either by darts or direct contact. The darts cause instant loss of neuromuscular control that can temporarily immobilize a person, while contact use produces pain in a smaller area and is designed to distract an individual and give police the needed edge.

According to Amnesty International USA, more than 90 people have died in "Taser-related" incidents since 1999. Since 2002, seven have died in Central Florida. Officials with Taser International, the Arizona company that produces the guns, dispute that the Taser is responsible for the deaths.

Company officials have said repeatedly that the weapons are safe and have no lasting effects. One of them, testifying Thursday in an Orlando court case involving Taser use, also said that the product is as safe to use on a young person as on an adult.

Only a few of the students involved in the Central Florida school Taser incidents could be identified because names were blacked out on many reports. The list of cases includes:

# A 12-year-old boy at Gateway School for emotionally challenged students in Orange County, whose wrists were handcuffed behind his back and who was being restrained by deputy sheriffs when an officer fired his Taser.

# A slightly built 17-year-old boy at Colonial High who was arrested by an Orange County deputy for walking off campus without permission. Placed in the caged back seat of a patrol car, he began "banging around," and an officer who wanted him "calmed down" gave him two shots with a Taser.

# A 14-year-old girl involved in a scuffle at Freedom High School in Orange County who was shocked three times in quick succession. A deputy also used his Taser on three other girls involved in the fight.

# Two boys at Lakeland High who, along with more than 150 other students, ran to watch when a fight broke out after school. A Lakeland police officer pushing through the crowd of students used his Taser "to get them to move" so he could intercede in the fray.

"I heard a tap, tap, tap and then it shocked me on my left arm," said Soladoye Oyelowo, one of those tased at Lakeland High in January. "Then I saw the officer run right past me."

Lakeland police Officer Michael Branch had jammed his Taser first into Soladoye, who heard its telltale sound, and then into Brandon Bivens, 18, who was standing next to Soladoye,17 at the time. The boys said he did not apologize.

Branch stated in his report that the boys were in his way, so "I deployed my Taser in the drive stun mode and touched two students with a one second burst to get them to move."

Lakeland police are investigating the incident because Soladoye's mother complained. Branch remains a school-resource officer at Lakeland High, although police say they have turned up an allegation that Branch used his Taser another time and did not report the incident as required.

"An officer has rights. He is innocent until proven guilty," said Jack Gillen, spokesman for Lakeland police.

Police departments across Central Florida have been buying tasers by the dozens in recent years. They are standard gear at the Orange County Sheriff's Office, which assigns deputies to work as school-resource officers, to cover special events or to deal with campus emergencies.

Ogden said Orange deputies often use Tasers to control individuals in situations where lethal weapons never would be considered. A Taser does less damage than a baton, pepper spray or direct contact with a student, Ogden and others say.

Across the region, school districts contract with law-enforcement agencies, so whether cops at schools carry Tasers depends on where the school is located. For example, Winter Park High is patrolled by city police, who don't carry Tasers. But Taser-toting deputies patrol Colonial, Freedom, University, Evans, West Orange and Cypress Creek high schools in Orange County, and have used them.

One deputy sheriff -- Mark Leubscher -- used his Taser on both the child at Gateway and the boy locked in the police car at Colonial High.

The Sheriff's Office conducts a review each time a Taser is fired. As in all of the school cases involving sheriff's personnel, investigators found that Leubscher acted "within policy," which generally calls for officers to use a degree of force equal to or just a bit less than the level of resistance being encountered.

The agency's training bulletin says Tasers are an appropriate response to passive resistance from a person.

Ogden defended the deputies, saying only they could decide at the moment if using a Taser was appropriate.

"You can take anything out of context," said Ogden, who is heading a Sheriff's Office task force studying use of Tasers by the department amid public criticism of Taser use on adult criminal suspects.

Orange school officials also dismiss the incidents.

"We can't second-guess the deputies," said Rick Harris, the district's safety director.

Among Central Florida school districts, only Volusia County schools are totally without Tasers. Sheriff's officials say they are not needed. Seminole County deputy sheriffs working at schools, Orlando police serving as resource officers and police who work at some schools in Osceola and Lake counties carry Tasers, too, although officials say they have not been used.

Nationwide, objections to Tasers in schools also are beginning to emerge. Residents of Madison, Wis., are up in arms after an officer used his Taser on a 14-year-old boy in a high-school parking lot in January.

Elsewhere in Florida, the Duval County Sheriff's Office reconsidered plans to equip deputies who work in schools with Tasers after parents complained. Objections by the Flagler County School Board resulted in the sheriff there deciding against arming his school deputies with Tasers.

In January, the Miami-Dade Police Department revised its policy on using stun guns after it was criticized for using Tasers on a 6-year-old in a school office and a 12-year-old truant running from police. The revised Miami policy takes age, size and weight into account.

Some Florida legislators, including Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, want a statewide ban.

Kat Gordon, an Orange County School Board member, favors a state law or local policy banning Tasers in the schools. They have no place in the schools, she said.

"Teachers have to handle disruptions in the classrooms," Gordon said. "A teacher doesn't pull a Taser out and use it on a handicapped child."

The issue is new to many educators, however. Often, district officials are unaware police even have the stun guns.

Sara Stern, spokeswoman for Brevard County schools, said she could not be sure which police agencies in Brevard have them. The district, like most others, does not keep track of Taser incidents. Stern could recall only one, involving a girl at Cocoa High in the fall of 2003.

In Seminole County, the four known uses of Tasers on students all occurred at Seminole High School, which Sanford police patrol. The department found the use of force appropriate in all cases, including the breakup of a fight in which an officer stunned a 14-year-old girl just less than 5 feet tall and weighing 98 pounds.

Walt Griffin, principal of Seminole High, doesn't want Tasers in his school, but it is not his decision.

"It's a police matter," Griffin said. "But use of the Taser should be the last resort."

Edward E. Hamilton, a 17-year-old student at Seminole High, was zapped when he tried to slip away to visit his little sister.

Nicie Louise Hamilton, 15, died in January. She rests in Evergreen cemetery, a short bicycle ride from the school and the Goldsboro neighborhood where Edward lives. Her death, said their father, Edward R. Hamilton, touched the youth deeply.

As Edward was leaving school Feb. 24, a teacher stopped him and told him to go to the office. Straddling his bicycle, he refused. School Resource Officer Thomas Bernosky couldn't get Edward to cooperate, either.

Edward, who stands 5-feet-6-inches tall and weighs 127 pounds, swore at the officer, claiming his teacher said he could leave.

"A short time later the subject starts to physically pull away from this officer and attempted to push me away," Bernosky wrote in his report of the incident. "At that time I deployed my M-26 taser into the back of the subject."

The sensation shot down Edward's arm and through his body, Edward said, although his thick denim jacket protected him from getting the full jolt.

"If he had just let my arm go, I wouldn't have run anywhere," Edward said. "We were just going to the office."

Wilma Hamilton, his mother, said she is angry at the school and police.

"I don't like the way the police did it," she said. "They could have killed him."

Dave Weber can be reached at

dweber@orlandosentinel.com or 407-772-8042.

source url: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/orl-asectaserkids25032505mar25,0,3525324.story?coll=sfla-news-florida

Add a comment on this article

Main Menu

Take Action

Search

topics

categories

regions

Community

Non-Profit Sponsors

News

Records: Cops used Tasers against 24 students since 2003