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OPINION

Editorial: Schools need to know about Tasers

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Comments (9)

Friday, September 25, 2009

(Updated 3:00 am)

There's no excuse for the Greensboro Police Department not informing Guilford County Schools officials that its school resource officers now are armed with Tasers. Or, for that matter, not letting the public know either.

Notifying the community that officers assigned to county schools now carry the high-voltage stun guns seems especially important, given the ongoing debate over their use.

Police Chief Tim Bellamy's position apparently is that his department isn't under any obligation to report what he views as nothing more than a routine equipment change. Recent history and common sense suggest otherwise.

The Tasering of a 15-year-old female student at Ragsdale High School last week by an SRO from the Sheriff's Office again raised questions about the safety and propriety of the weapons.

School board members were to discuss the thorny issue at last night's meeting. Vice Chairman Amos Quick and member Deena Hayes both have expressed reservations about arming officers in schools with Tasers.

Bellamy's lack of openness on such a sensitive issue is even more puzzling in light of recent calls for city government in general, and the police department specifically, to be more open and accountable.

This is not a question of authority. School board Chairman Alan Duncan agrees that law enforcement agencies have the right to decide how to arm their officers. Tony Scales, the schools safety administrator, adds that under contracts with the schools, they're not required or expected to inform the district about new equipment.

But the High Point Police Department has voluntarily provided information that some of its resource officers in Guilford schools carry Tasers. Greensboro could have provided the same courtesy.

While it may be reassuring that Bellamy's officers have received extensive Taser training and follow strict guidelines on their use, the public and the schools had a right to know of their presence. Waiting until a student gets zapped is too late.

Keeping order on school campuses is no easy task. Local law enforcement agencies should have the final say in how it's done, including the best tools to use.

Tasers certainly is preferable to the deadly force of firearms. And if sheriff's deputies already deploy them in the schools they patrol, why wouldn't city police? But at the very least school administrators and the public deserve to know.

Bellamy's lack of disclosure this time may have been merely an oversight. But for future reference, opting for timely openness in matters involving the safety of schoolchildren would be a much wiser choice than silence.

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EGParent

September 25, 2009 - 2:33 pm EDT

They carry guns, mace, and knife sticks already and are trained in deadly force...so what is the big deal!
I would much rather the "child" that is assaulting another be the only one tazed ... than hear about the
10 innocent ones standing around being maced also...

They are highly trained to do their jobs and what tools they choose to use is not your area of expertise...
unless you have a degree in criminology!! I do not feel that Chief Bellamy has any obligation to notify anyone
about what he feels his officers need to carry to protect themselves, our students and teachers on campus.
It is his job and his area of expertise.

Keep on Chief Bellamy...the ones crying today will be calling for your help tommorrow when these little sweet children are knocking them in the head and taking their wallets!!

buzzman

September 25, 2009 - 4:33 pm EDT

EGParent - Great commentary!
Another N&R opinion based on ignorance - must be a slow news day! N&R, why don't you go talk to some of the teachers who have to try to teach but can't because of constant interruptions and distractions caused by these ANIMALS. Better yet, why don't you get a job as a substitute teacher and experience it first hand!
Who cares what kinds of weapons & tools the SROs carry? They're just trying to do their job, but it sure is difficult with all these morons trying to second guess them.
Chief Bellamy has no obligation to tell anyone the makeup of GPD's arsenal!!!!

BigMo

September 25, 2009 - 3:04 pm EDT

There is no place on our school campuses for law enforcement officers. Are our schools now prisons and they are now our prison guards? Get rid of them and call them if needed.

Panacea

September 25, 2009 - 5:24 pm EDT

If teachers had the authority to kick disruptive students to the curb, then we wouldn't need police officers on school campuses.

But teachers have to keep the violent kids in with the ones who WANT to learn. Schools are a prison of sorts: for the teachers and the good kids who are trapped with the criminals in training that the school system will not deal with.

DaveW

September 26, 2009 - 12:50 pm EDT

THANK YOU!

Bill Witherspoon

September 26, 2009 - 9:36 pm EDT

Big Mo unfortunately it may be too late. SRO's are not prison guards. They don't enforce school rules just the law. They are not there to discipline kids they are there to keep the peace. Just look at the countless weapons they have seized this year already both at high schools and middle schools. There is no way of knowing how many violent acts are avoided by their presence. Also why all the fuss because GPD officers now have tasers, Deputies that work in schools have had them for years.

EGParent

September 25, 2009 - 4:43 pm EDT

BigMo...How I wish it were true and officers were not needed? However I have seen the violence first hand.

Five cars were called to our school twice this week and a sheriff car and ambulance the week before...didn't you know...they are prisons!! The school was on lock down once because of this.

Guilford county does a good job covering up when a rival gang members challenge another gang and a fight occurs....

Our kids are going to school with convicted felons and gang members. They cut someone with a razor
on Saturday and are sitting beside our kids on Monday because the judge orders them to attend school.

This is the reality....A boy almost beats his grandfather to death, comes to our school through the foster system,
cuts his arms, threatens students and teachers on campus, and finally attacks and chokes a teacher on our campus..
He is back on campus a week later because his IEP states his violent nature is part of his disability and we must deal with this poor "EC kid"!! Yet the next day a poor EC kid picks up a chair and throws it at a teacher...and they can't even put him in ISS because of his IEP....and you think it is not a prison....
It is a free mental institution/babysitting service for the teenage mentally insane!!!

Interested

September 26, 2009 - 10:04 am EDT

"There's no excuse . . . for not informing . . ." "Tony Scales, the schools safety adminstrator, adds that under contracts with the schools, they are not required or expected to inform . . ."

Appears as if there was an excuse for not informing: a signed contract between the schools and the police department that clearly stated there was no requirement or expectation to. If contracts signed by someone in the school system said he has free reign to choose how to equip his officers, why would Mr. Bellamy think it necessary to do otherwise. The school system clearly said when signing such a contract "We trust your judgment." If the school board has since changed its mind, then it should change the wording in its contracts.

Paul Daniels

September 28, 2009 - 4:21 pm EDT

Regardless of whether Chief Bellamy informed the school board that his officers were carrying tasers, it is silly to suggest that the Guilford County Board of Education did not now that SROs were carrying and using tasers. In February 2008, an SRO used a taser on a Northeast HS student at Northeast High School. The school board knew about this. It does not take a Ph.D in logic to conclude from that, that SROs are carrying and using tasers. You can see the Sheriff's press release at:

www.guilfordcountysheriff.com/content/view/80/98

Now, for the other question: What difference would it have made if Chief Bellamy had formally notified the board that his officers were carrying tasers? (This is a rhetorical question: the answer is "none").

Paul Daniels,
District 5