news-record.com

Really Brian? Deena Hayes formed a committee that met for over a year and came to conclusion that the gang and violence issue was overstated? Could that be perhaps because one of the members of the committee that Deena appointed was a gang member? Either you or the editorial staff of the News and Record are so one sided on this issue. You've written countless articles about the controversy of Tasers and not one about the SRO in Myrtle Beach that was recentless stabbed 7 times by a student before he shot and killed the student. As a parent of students in Guilford County I want SRO's to have every tool available. Our current school board should pay close attention to what happened in the recent municipal elelction. Our votes will be heard.

The SRO needs every tool possible to quel a riot and to try to keep peace. Some of these "children" are as big as or larger than the SRO. I would rather have one tasered than shot dead. Maybe this brilliant school board needs to go to a school and be there for several days. I have grandchildren in high school and I hear of some of the antics that happen there. Let's get on to more important issues than what a police officer needs to keep peace.

I've got a proposal for Deena Haynes. Let me bring a 14 year old girl of my choosing to the next Board meeting. During that meeting the 14 year old girl is going to assault her repeatedly until Ms. Haynes can put handcuffs on her or until Ms. Haynes loses conciousness. If she can get the handcuffs on her, she can take away the Tasers. If not, she needs to shut her mouth and let the SRO's do their jobs with the equipment available to them.

"Several parents and community members have addressed the board on the issue over the past several weeks after a school resource officer used a Taser on a female student at Ragsdale High in September."
There are over 70,000 students in the system...and "SEVERAL PARENTS" have complained. How many have complained? Several could be three. WHERE IS THE JOURNALISM?

Days later, another resource officer was injured breaking up a fight at Northeast High. The sheriff’s office said the deputy did not use a Taser because of the controversy." (Oh by the way...the injuries required surgery...omitted by the crack reporting staff). In the next sentence....“Given the fact that school isn’t as dangerous as we thought, maybe it’s time to revisit Taser debate,” board member Sandra Alexander said".

You have got to be kidding me!!! Do you realize convicted criminals are sitting next to thirteen year old children in the classroom? Take Buffy's yearbook...go to the clerks office and run a background on every upperclassman...it will be worth the cost...and you will have a stroke. Remove tazers? Let's remove the school board and keep the tazers. We removed the paddles and 30 years later need SRO's with tazers. Now let's remove the tazers and in 30 years we will need the military with automatic weapons.

Reference the quote by Ms Alexander “Given the fact that school isn’t as dangerous as we thought, maybe it’s time to revisit Taser debate,” do you think that the fact that the SRO's do carry the Taser might have somrthing to do with keeping the schools more civil?

I don't understand what the issue is here. The very small group of people wanting to keep tasers out of our schools are miniscule, and it seems most have personal issues that place them or their family members in a high risk category for getting tased. Tuffi and snapandwhistle summed this issue up well.

Given the fact that the "students" who have been tasered are hooligans and totally out of control, the need for the SROs to carry this weapon should be obvious to all, including clueless school board members.

I suggest that the various law enforcement agencies involved pull the SROs and let the board find private guards if they really want the tasers out. I certainly would not ask a cop to risk his life in the hostile environment that is the typical Guilford county high or middle school without a serious, non-lethal weapon to subdue these maniacs.

Doc

It's interesting that all of the above comments support keeping tasers in the schools. Where are all those folks who are against them? It's typical Guilford County, GC School Board and Greensboro to make a BIG issue out of something like this just because a few citizens are against it.
If the N&R would change it's ways and do some accurate investigative reporting rather than writing a bunch of hearsay and what is said during the meetings, the story would be entirely different. Talk to the teachers who have to deal with these animals on a daily basis. I'm talking about the ones who continuously disrupt the class because they don't want to learn and don't want their classmates to learn either. And, the system is set up so that these animals cannot be dealt with effectively.
If the school board wants to solve the problem, it must go to the source and eliminate it. There is absolute no reason to keep these hooligans in school if they can't behave themselves!!!

I've made my position on this issue quite well known. I will add only this: the school board has no jurisdiction over the police department. They have no right to tell the police what tools to use, and no authority either. SRO's will continue to carry TASERs, and that is as it should be. Many times when SRO's need help with larger scale incidents additional police units are called into the school, and they will have TASERs too. And they will also all have guns too you know.

School Board: talk to your teachers. Ask them what they want, what they feel is necessary. Many of them would carry TASERs themselves if allowed. They are there everyday, with the students, with the child-criminals and juvenile delinquents. And teachers, you'd do well to attend the meeting as well, to remind the school board of the dangers you face and the students you have enrolled. Maybe, just maybe, the school board will see reason.

Is this the most important issue facing our schools currently?
Seems to be a broken record with this committee.

“Given the fact that school isn’t as dangerous as we thought, maybe it’s time to revisit Taser debate,” board member Sandra Alexander said.

I can not beleive this person can think that gangs are the only reason kids fight in schools. I feel that if they are going to remove anything from the schools it should be the people that say things like this without putting any thought to it. The last FOUR school shootings in the USA had NOTHING yes NOTHING to do with GANGS , two were from being bullied and the schools doing NOTHING about it and the other two were due to being mad at another person.I feel that if these people can not hold students and their parents responable for what they do ( Yes , I said make the parents resonsable too ) then when there becomes a problem in one of the schools and they remove the tasers then I feel EVERY parent that had a child there to see it should just SUE THE SCHOOL and let them know just how we feel about these kids being bullies not just to other kids but to the teacher and the SROs.If these kids can not show respect to the SROs then they will continue to become a problem in our community and if these kids are fighting and trying to hurt adults and SROs then where are their parents at , why are they not teaching these kids morals. I feel that maybe CPSs should be called to investigate any kid under 18 that openly strikes an adult and the parents that seem to have no controll over them. I also feel that the school needs to intervein into kids they see bulling instead of pushing it off to the parents to stop the bulling.
One of my children was being bullied last year going to , at and going home from school. I talked to people in the school and got nowhere , it was only AFTER I talked to these boys myself with a threat of having a police officer freind of mine meet with them and their parents if it kept up did it stop.

Things have changed a lot in the last month. First, Taser International that makes the taser has come out with an advisory that users should not tase a person in the chest. If you shoot at the head, you may blind the person. Second, in some systems, SROs have used the taser on kids that did not "move on fast enought" to suity the SRO. If fact, one SRO tased several students just to see how it felt. Children should not die because they a "attitude problem". We have in Guilford County no protocol that I know of on when and how the tasers will be used. I understand the following:
(1) The FBI does not use them.
(2) The Federal Bureau of Prisons do not use them.
(3) They are not used in mental hospitals.
(4) They are not used in state prisons.
(5) Over 50 people have been killed by tasers in the U.S.
Use of a revolver or a taser should be used only when the SRO's or someone else's life is in danger.
In summary, I may give up on a student, but I want give up on them if they are under 16 years of age.
Also, the BOE pays the wages for the SRO's. They not only have a right but they have a duty that the security on the school grounds is appropriate for the situation.

I say that Deena Hayes and other BOE members who oppose the use of tasers should be required to work in the classrooms of various schools for a solid month to see what teachers and staff are dealing with daily. We have students who have no respect for authority, have anger management issues, and could care less about learning. Our teachers deal with these students daily while trying to do their job and educate the students who do care.

The SRO's have every right to be able to protect themselves as they do their job of protecting the students who are in school to get an education and the teachers who are there to make this happen. Should the BOE decide to prohibit tasers in the Guilford County Schools, the sheriff and police departments should immediately pull their officers OUT of the schools and let the BOE have the responsibililty of protecting our students. Maybe they can put Deena Hayes in there and let her see how insignificant her big mouth really is!

If I had my way I would see that every police officer in Greensboro had everything and anything they wanted to protect themselves and the community, they( GBO officers ) have an extreme job. Anytime I have been around any city police they have been friendly and show complete integrity.Give them anything they need...... I say they deserve it without any doubt, there is no debate here.................

Omitted from the reporting were the 2 public comments made earlier during the meeting by teachers about threats of violence made where nothing was done and about the actual number of acts of violence in comparison to the reported number. These comments were glossed over so that Deena's ad hoc committee--no expertise in the subject on the committee from what I remember of its make-up--could present their findings.

If I were the Police Chief, I would just pull my guys out of schools altogether. See how schools look after a year or so with no officers.

Cameras and Police are the ONLY reasons some of the kids that the county school board forces schools to keep in their building behave.