Florida Police Taser 11-Year-Old Girl

Web Editor: John Blunda, Associate Producer
Created: 3/28/2008 12:56:35 PM

FLORIDA (NBC) -- The deputy shocked the student with the Taser gun after the student allegedly punched her in the face.

An altercation at a Florida elementary school ended with an 11-year-old girl being tasered and sent to the hospital on Thursday.

It happened at Moss Park Elementary in Orange County.

Authorities said the altercation happened during the school's morning announcements and both the student and the officer were injured.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office said the student who was shocked was trying to push another student into oncoming traffic.

Other students went to teachers to report the incident.

"There should be guidance counselors. The principal should have been there to calm the child down instead of having an officer do it," parent Cherley Constant said.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office said there were a few teachers around.

They said the 11-year-old shoved a desk and chair, started spitting at the teachers and refused to go to the principal's office.

"She was crying. She had tears coming down her face. She was bright red," student Taliesin Ploeg said of the girl who got shocked with a Taser gun.

The teachers called in the campus resource officer, but she said she was punched in the nose by the student.

That's when she used her Taser gun.

"I think they should be able to restrain the child without having to Taser the child, especially at such a young age," parent Brenda Aloiau said.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office demonstrated on a towel what it's like to be shocked with a Taser gun, and it said a Taser gun can be used on a child if he or she poses a threat, but it also depends on his or her size.

"The policy reads that, yes, you can Tase a student, if they are aggressive and also if they're fighting the officer. In this case, this student, it is my understanding she is approximately 5-foot-5", which is my height, and she is approximately 160 to 170 pounds, so this is a pretty big student," one official said.

"I think there's a lack of discipline in the schools, and unfortunately, it's led to a lot of problems in the public schools. Teachers aren't allowed to touch children, but when you have a situation like this, what do you do?" parent Sarah Miller said.

School officials are not commenting on the incident.

"They didn't say anything. I tried to find out, but nobody was talking," one parent said.

Parents received a letter Thursday calling the use of the Taser gun a "last resort action that was taken by the school resource officer."

The 11-year-old had to have the prongs from the Taser removed at the hospital, and she is going to be arrested and charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, disrupting a school function and resisting with violence.

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