PA: Restrictive Regulations Promote Additional Police Intervention

ANOTHER STUDENT TASERED – What exactly do you expect the police to do?

In a fight that made national news at a basketball game at a Pittsburgh High School, law enforcement were called to stop the violence which resulted in several arrests and one student getting tasered.

In Pennsylvania, school staff are discouraged from intervening resulting in an increase of school resource officers and law enforement on school premises.  Prior to the restrictive Pennsylvania regulations limiting teacher’s use of effective physical intervention methods, teachers intervened more often in student on student altercations and were able to address the behavior in its early stages rather than allowing the behavior to escalate resulting in additional law enforcement and the corresponding criminalization of the child to maintain the peace.

If schools and the public are not happy about the repercussions of an intervention policy that ties the hands of teachers to intervene effectively in favor of law enforcement intervention, there are three options:

1. Untie teacher’s hands and make law enforcement intervention a last resort

2. Keep teacher’s hands tied, but train law enforcement (if they are willing) in youth appropriate interventions i.e. verbal de-escalation and/or non-pain inducing physical intervention, or

3. Keep things as they are and be unhappy.

In NY, ACLU filed a law suit against NYPD for using excessive force on students and the improper criminalization of the student.  Contrast this with an incident in MN. 

In MN, a student was defiant to law enforcement and got tasered.  When questioned about the appropriateness of the use of a taser on a student, the MN police chief backed his officers 100% and said the use of a taser was appropriate under the circumstances presented, and that it prevented the use of more pain inducing intervention like the baton.

So to all the people advocating to tie teacher’s and staff’s hands — now you can witness first hand some of the  consequences –increased use of law enforcement and tasers to maintain safety.  Story.

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