Taser Guns Stunning Students

Controversy Grows Over Their Presence, And Use, In Schools

(CBS)  Lakeland High principal Mark Thomas asks, "What do they want us to do with children that are out of control? If they don't want them tased … if they don't want them arrested … what do they want the school to do with the child that will not comply?"

At a lot of schools, Andrews observes, the issue isn't whether to have Tasers, the issue is when Tasers can be used.

For instance, should a student be tasered for mouthing off, or disobeying a teacher? How about a student caught in the act of skipping school?

At Lakeland High, there was even some casual tasering. Officer Branch, who was also a baseball coach, tasered five players, on a lark.

The players, including Christopher Sale, wanted to know what a Taser felt like, Andrews says.

"It didn't really hurt that bad," Sale recalls. "It kinda felt like a bee sting, a pretty powerful bee sting."

Lakeland, Fla. Police Chief Roger Boatner says Branch was disciplined because, "He went outside of our policy."

The department said Branch declined comment.

Most frustrating to parents, Andrews points out, is the unknown risk.

Taser safety studies done on animals have never focused on children, but do claim a margin of safety.

Taser International calls the weapon "the safest use of force compared with ... baton strikes, chemical agents or canine response."

Dr. Richard Luceri, a cardiac rhythm specialist and paid adviser to the company, says the current is too low to harm anyone: "Parents, or anyone else for that matter, should know that, as used in its current form, a Taser appears to be quite safe in all subjects … even if it's a small weight child, although we do not have a large body of evidence in that group."

However, Roger Barr, PhD., a biomedical expert at Duke University, says the Taser jolt can reach the hearts of children and is potentially fatal.

So, he says, when other experts say there should be no increased risk in children, "That's incorrect. Taser's own study shows that it's incorrect. Roughly speaking, when your weight is half as much, your risk is twice as much."

But not every student is a small child.

Alan Sale, Christopher Sale's father, isn't worried one bit that his son felt the Taser's sting: "Come stand next to my son and tell me that he's a child. …Tasers are unquestionably, enormously less dangerous than night sticks or a 9 millimeter (gun)."

Theodora Oyelowo, however, says, yes, some students are six feet tall, but to her, they are children: "They're not cattle. You use electrical shocks on cattle, on animals. Not people. These are God's children."

Some Florida lawmakers are hoping to pass a measure regulating the use of Tasers in schools in their state.