CO - LE peppers sprays rageful 8 yr. old, Lakewood

[PeteyGirl]

If several persons (cops and other adults) had gotten together and subdued him physically his risk to be seriously INJURED is very high, and that is an evidence based statistic. When I worked in psychiatry, the staff used to contain a patient consisted of four staff members assigned to a specific limb. The injuries and even deaths of patients under a dogpile of staff is the reason we had to be extremely circumspect. Even so, physically restraining someone is so inherently dangerous that I've seen psychiatry change into using more "medical restraints" (medication) so the patient does not get to that point in the first place.

I think the use of pepper spray, used with the child's size and age in mind, was much SAFER than a bunch of large, strong adults subduing him. Obviously the LE officers and the psychiatric professionals feel the same way.

 

[Kat]

We have to be careful about allowing teachers or other school staff to be put into the position that they are required to physically restrain a child as well.

At one of the cities I have lived in the past there was an incident at a school that was for children with behavior issues. The child was having rage IIRC and the teachers aide who had been trained physically restrained the child to protect themselves and others.

The child died from mechanical compression to the trunk. His name was Cedrick Napoleon. I will never forget him because he was a ward of the state and the woman who killed him didn't have any consequences for her actions.

This happened back before the changes where made in the TX legislature that forbid the school staff from removing a child from a classroom and locking them into a room by themselves. Sometimes those rooms were actually closets that had been converted for that purpose. I was never so glad in all my days to see that bit of legislation passed. There were a lot of practices that were in place that were IMHO just horrible for kids. Honestly.

There has to be a way to take care of these children without using pepper spray or using physical restraints in such a way that the child dies.

Here is one that I saw not too long ago and we could all google and find a scad of instances:

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/new...-needs-student-restrained-66-times-in-19-days
(I happened to follow this only because I keep up with TX news as much as possible).

There has to be a way to make sure that these kids get the help they need and to ensure their safety. The staff's safety and the other children's safety.

Honestly I'm at a loss for what a good solution would be but I know that using pepper spray and restraints and etc. are not an option when it can't be monitered who is taking these actions as far as their training and when it is appropriate to take that action on a child.

I'm still sad for this little boy.

(Missizzy this isn't a post directed at you, you are doing exactly what I wish all these child had in their lifes. You are an angel)

 

[Kimberlyd125]

In all honesty, I think people who think it's ok to pepper spray an out of control child would be the same ones outraged if this child had died from inhaling the pepper spray or if his blood pressure dropped enough to make his little heart stop. Or, if he had permanent damage to his eyes or if his skin blistered severely.

JMO

I think it's easy to say it's ok since he had no permanent damage. But it could have easily happened.