Thursday, April 7, 2011

Is Pepper Spraying a Second Grader Appropriate?



Recently, a story from Colorado made national news. An 8-year old named Aiden threw a temper tantrum and would refuse to cooperate with teachers and police. After a long standoff the police decided to pepper spray Aiden to get him to cooperate. Please watch this video that details the story and write a reaction to it.

Is it appropriate for adults to pepper spray a child when they are acting violently and not cooperating?

25 comments:

Colin L. said...

I think it is nessecary if the adult [police man] to pepper spray him if he does not cooperate after talking to him and trying to calm him down. It was probably better to pepper spray him rather than tazer or knock him out.

Trevor said...

No, I do not think that it was right to use pepper spray because it is just who Adien is. The other two times that the teachers had to call the police they where able to calm him down. I agree with his mom that he was being treated like a bank robber o something. He is 8 years old and he is who he is.

Kate S. said...

I think it was not appropriate for the police to pepper spray this 8 year old. However, I do think this child should be in special care. The police could have handled this better. I do not think the 8 year old would actually kill somebody, but they could have put handcuffs on him or something. I do not think this was appropriate for the police to do.

Charlie said...

I think it might of been appropriate because the video said the cops were trying to talk him down but it could not work so they had no choice excepted to pepper spray him .Another reason it might be appropriate to pepper spray him is because it said he was trying to make something sharp and pointy, and was throwing chairs at his teacher.

Chris J said...

I think it was crazy to do that to an 8 year old boy.They should have just eather punished him or they should have spanked him for what he was doing.And also i think they should have did what the did,or it would not have been a good site for anyone.

Joey said...

I think that the kid’s mom is right that they should have tried to talk to him first, but if he didn’t listen to the police, I think it’s okay to spray him as a last resort. I also think that it was a good idea to send him to a different school because he’ll learn better that way.

Lucas said...

I feel that this Aiden kid did something wrong. But who pepper sprays a 2nd grader. I think that is a crule thing to do to a kid that has issues. That is not right to have a violent temper tantrum. They could have known he was protect himself.

Evan said...

I do not think it is appropriate to pepper spray into an 8 year olds eyes because the police should have calmed him down instead of calming him down with something that can take away the ability to see. It’s just wrong to do that to an 8 year old.

Quinn O. said...

I think that Aiden needed to calm down and the police made a good decision about spraying him. If you spray pepper spray into everyone’s eyes that does not cooperate it is bad because too many kids are getting sprayed. Ayden over reacts to much and he needed to learn his lesson so that made the cops have a reason to spray him.

nolan said...

I think that I think that it was totaly apropreattot to peper spry him. However I thin they coud have talked him out of it. SoIkind of agree and disagree

Alex said...

I think that they did do kind of the right thing and I also think that they should have been a little less vilent and I think that instead of spraying him they could have just talked to him and if that didn't work to then go and spray him but they should have just talked to himand then whent spraying him but instead of spraying him they could have just hand cuff him and if he thretind the police they could go to spraying him. what I would have done was talked to him and then if he still didn't calm down i would spray him. Thats what I woud do.

Chloe said...

I think it is not appropriate for police to pepper spray a 8 year old boy. Because the teacher could just go up to Aiden pick him up and put him in a room until he settles down. I don’t feel bad for Aiden because he had very bad behavior and needs to work on it. I know it was wrong for the 8 year old to threaten a teacher and all but I don’t think you need to pepper spray him.

Rachael said...

No, it sometimes is appropriate but sometimes it is not. It’s only appropriate because if a kid threatens to kill someone or hurt someone they could be talking about you, so you should pepper spray them because it will teach them not to do it again and they will learn something about being violent. It is also not appropriate because it is child abuse. If kids are just not co- operative then you shouldn’t pepper spray them, you should just talk to them. I think a child’s eyes are more sensitive than adults so I think it could really damage their eyes. But you still shouldn’t do it, if they are deadly than yea but if they are just misbehaving at school than it’s not appropriate.

Tyler said...

I think that the boy deserved to be pepper sprayed because he had done bad stuff before. He has anger problems so I think that they should work harder to overcome the anger problems. If they overcome the anger problems heed stop acting supper mad due to anger problems.

Adam said...

One part of me thinks it was right of the police to pepper spray the 8 year old Aiden because he was being violent in class and could have hurt someone. The good thing is that he did not get tazzered. I’ve watched the video three times I still think it’s kind of good that they did it. The other part of me thinks it is wrong .they could have just put him in a other room.

Kayla .H. said...

I think that Aiden was acting inappropriately and had to be stopped. That was bad that he was threatening the teacher. He would not so I think that was appropriate for the cops to spray him with pepper spray.
Kayla H

Nadia said...

I think that it is not right for adults to pepper spray young children. I think this because it could make them blind and mess up there reading skills. The adult should have the responsibility to not pepper spray a child in a situation like this. After they pepper sprayed the child they would probably think after “Why did I do that to a child, if it wasn’t that huge like this one.” It’s appropriate when someone is threatening to kill someone than you should go into action with the pepper spray. So, I think it’s sometimes good to do it and sometimes not.

Caroline S. said...

Yes, because I has happened and he was doing bad things. He already has gotten reported to the police twice, so it was not too bad. He also destroyed the class room. If I were a police I would do the same, because he got reported before and it was not as bad as it could have been. It also will bring his temper down and he will learn his lesson. Another reason it is okay is he threatened to kill the police and his teacher. I think the pepper spray was okay.

Emma said...

Yes, because I think if a child isn’t cooperating they should be punished for their actions. If things get really bad calling the police is appropriate for this particular situation. Depending on how violent Aiden was, the pepper spray would be the best choice. Sometimes Mrs. Arzberger says “Thoughts lead to words. Words lead to actions. Actions lead to character, and Character leads to destiny.” To most people that saying leads to changing your thoughts, words and actions. If I were the police in this situation pepper spray would be my best choice.
Emma

Ryan said...

I think that kid should go to juvenile hall you cannot say “I want injure to my teachers”. That is not a good way to act at school or anywhere. Those words are dangerous. Those words scare people when you have anger management problems.

Kayla S. said...

I think that pepper spraying a second grader is appropriate. If the second grader is acting violently to his or her teacher’s or class mates. Ripping things off the wall, throwing chair’s at their teacher and threatening to kill the teacher is a good enough reason, especially since the police had already been called to the school on three different occasions.

Alexa said...

Pepper spraying a second grader is reasonable if they are acting violent or threats to kill someone. I think the Police men made the right decision to pepper spray Aiden for his violent behavior toward the teacher.

Riley R said...

I do not think they should have sprayed Aiden because of his anger issues. Then the police tried to talk it out with him and calm him down but couldn’t. I feel they should have tried harder. They pepper sprayed him and did not care that he had anger issues. That’s what I think.

Patricia said...

I think that if they talked to him before and the tantrums where as bad as this one than no it was unnecessary for pepper spray. But if it was worse than any other tantrum’s he had than it was necessary. :)

Taylor said...

It’s appropriate to pepper-spray a child when they rip things off the walls, threaten the teachers, and throw chairs. That’s a bad, rude thing to do.