A 200-250 lbs 9 year old! Oh boy.... Imagine his temper tantrums, the freaking house probably shakes. Big Fail!

the need to follow him with the taser and make him run to the police station

I knew there was a twist to the headliner, a 250 lb 9 year old, damn I don't even weigh that much. They should have charged the parents for child endangerment because they are killing the kid slowy. He may not see his 18th b-day.

Yeah......but think about it. What DO you do with a child - any child - who is that non-complaint and out of control? You can't discipline your children any more because if you do the state comes and takes them away and you go to jail....so what is a parent to do? Call the police and hope they do the right thing. If we can get the government out of our homes and lives, and tone down agencies that currently operate outside the law (Child Welfare/DYFS etc..) maybe we could get back to the task of raising our OWN children with no interference from our watchers in the state and fed. government.

9 years old and weighs between 200-250lbs!?!?! Someone should tazer the parents over and over again.

Ok, let's think about a 250-lb 9-year-old who needs to be tasered by a cop for just a second. The parents have abdicated at that point, and that kid is in a poisonous environment. Why on earth hasn't he been taken from that home? He's being destroyed. And no wonder he doesn't want to go to school - can you imagine the bullying and mockery that takes place?

225 yr old 9 year old? WTF!!!

The 9-year-old weighs 250lbs??? They should tase him every time he reaches for a bag of potato chips!!!

Just another thought but is it safe to tazer a 250lb 9 year old. I am guessing that if you had an adult that was proportionately heavy he would be well over 400lbs. The strain on the heart from the weight has to be pretty impressive I am wondering if the kid could have had a heart attack from it.

That said... tazer the stupid lazy parents that let the kid get so out of control. Sheesh!

The parents are horrible, the kid is horrible, the officer is horrible... but at the same time, I can't help but wish there was a nanny cam in the kids room.

Does it make me an evil person if I have an academic interest in seeing how a 250 lbs 9 year old reacts to being tazed?

The News Media is making this a big deal by highlighting the childs age. This kid probably outweighed the cop, what did they expect he should of done in a one cop town!!

Yes. The child is obviously overweight and probably was bigger than the officer. But, did you notice the inconsistency in the story? He was laying on the floor with his hands underneath him. So he had to be tased. He was laying on the floor flailing. So he had to be tased. Which was it? Poor report writing? Something else?

Parental consent or not, tasing a child is still tasing a child. The police officer shouldn't be a police officer if he has to resort to force to make a stubborn 9 year old child cooperate no matter the size.

OK: so one of the part-time or "volunteer" cops tassered a 9 year old who was TRUANT ?

What do they do with the 10 year olds who use chalk on the side walk, use a .45 to shoot them as vandals?

Better not speed through this town, you'll probably find a RPG in your rear window.

I know the US has become a police state, but this is ridiculous. The police have gotten WAY out of control.

Why are you mean-spirited commentors such freakin control monsters? Lasers kill. Who's to say what physical damage has been done here by a crazed, badge wielding heartless monster? Do any of you even care if the child has a medical condition causing this? Is there medical help available? What good did the tasing do?

everyone who thinks its ok for cops to taser people need to get tasered themselves, its no joke, and if a cop does it to you as part of a power trip its most definitely police brutality, id rather get punched in the head than tasered tbh, even without the very real risks that come with tasering people. this is unfortunately the new america, police said tasers will be great because as a last resort its better than shooting someone, but the fact is the laws were immediately put in place to justify any and all use of tasers by police, after which it immediately became standard procedure to taser anyone who the cop "feels" is being unruly. these weapons need to be restricted, they're not designed for use whenever a cop gets annoyed, throw this POS pig in jail!

The article does not say the kid was fat; only that he weighed between 200 and 250 pounds.

How do we know the kid wasn't just BIG?

Lets see, the kid is clearly massively over weight, does not listen to his parents, won't go to school, doesn't respect authority. Being a minor doesn't mean you get complete free license to do whatever you want to do with your life and to just ignore what your parents tell you. If the officer was there to get the boy with the concent of the parent, who clearly couldn't control her son, and his reaction was to get on the ground into a position that made him impossible to control, followed by throwing a temper trantrum, I don't care if he is 9 or 90, he got what he deserved.

You know the saying "it takes a village to raise a child"? Well that means if you have an out of control child someone has to do something about it. These days if a teacher tries to do anything they get fired, if a parent tries to do anything they get custody taken away, if anybody else who knows the child tries to intervene they get sued to harrassment, and apparently even the police get investigated for unneccessary force.

Send the kid to a millitary school, get some discipline in his life, take away the friggen oreos and make him take a walk, or at least do SOMETHING.

Overweight or not, if you can't subdue a *NINE YEAR OLD* without using a taser, you shouldn't be a police officer.

2 words: military school

A nine year old gets blamed for adult behavior? Every adult in his life has betrayed him.

Now, he's on display, for the world's entertainment.

He's neglected and abused, and not one adult in his life is looking out for him. His family needs counseling.

The officer needs a psych eval. There's no place around children for the mentally unstable.

If you've ever seen videos of a person being tasered, you would be horrified. Where are this kid's protectors?

There are so many families who would love to have this kid in their lives. I'll take him.

A 250 pound 9 year old sounds like he needs medical attention. Something is wrong. What are the parents doing medically for this child? A third grader should not weigh as much as an overweight man. I don't believe in tasering nine year olds but I also don't understand why the parents had no control nor why the child is in such terrible health. Pretty sad all around.

whyisnoone,

Are you just trolling or serious? I see you just made your account to make this comment.

Neglected and abused? No one looking out for him? Adults in his life have betrayed him? Clearly his mother is trying to get him to go to school, but he is not listening. If you took him in to your house he would just eat all your food and not go to your schools. You don't get arrested for truancy for taking a few sick days, you don't get to 250 lbs from eating a few extra cookies, and you don't fail to totally respond to your parents and a police officer's instructions because you are misunderstood. Yes, even a 9 year old has to take some responsibility for their actions.

and a cop who tases children? should he take responsibility for his actions? tasing doesnt motivate it incapacitates, there's no reason to tase a person on the ground who refuses to get up other than to punish them, this is about as clear of a case of police brutality as it gets, cops are meant to protect and serve, not punish and injure

@hiap, what a creepy attitude to have. I would assume therefore if the policeman didn't have a taser to subdue a 9 year old who was already laying on the ground that you would be okay with him using a nightstick? Just beat him until he's compliant? Or perhaps you'd be down for spraying the kid with mace? Perhaps he should have called for backup, or a social worker before deciding to electrocute a child. I wonder how many warnings he gives his own children.

NJRichie, you are awesome and so right. Anyone thinking that it's not ok to spank a child but it is OK to taser them needs to have their head checked.

The average 9 year old boy is 4 foot 4 inches tall and the optimal weight is 61.6 pounds. The average weight for a 9 year old boy is 70-80 pounds. This kid was at least 350% over the average weight for a child his age unless he was over six foot tall. You refuse the lawful orders of a police officer you get what you deserve. What was the cop to do walk away? Hit the kid with his baton? Choke him out? Jump on the floor and wrestle this sumo kid? Call the county cops or state cops for backup? He warned the kid as did mom. Some people just need a really vivid explanation. He got one and it did nothing so he got another.

hiap,

Why do you care if I started an account just to comment on this? What does that have to do with you?

Stop assuming and bullying people.

WhyisnooneOutraged is absolutely right... and I did NOT just join to agree with what was said! Most of these comments here make me sick! Clearly this child is neglected to some extent weighing what he does at only 9 years old !! And I certainly hope you don't have any children hiap if you really believe it's the 9 year old responsibility what he weighs... the PARENTS are responsible !! I'm horrified to see how many idiots there are here today... it breaks my heart. I hope to God someone does something to help this kid who now has to deal with humiliation among his other problems. As for the cop... anyone who would tase a 9 year old deserves to lose his job.

Clearly the child is out of control, and an out of control child cannot just be told what to do. What kind of world is it coming to that a child is not expected to listen to the instructions of a police officer? I am not some grumpy old man, I am in my mid 20s, still young enough to remember that if I were his age and I broke the law and had a police officer come to get me I would have been expected to show him complete respect no matter what I had done and do as he told and treated him with courtesy. And no I was never physically abused or even punished in a physical manner as a child, but I knew darn well that I was supposed to respect my parents, my elders, and the authorities. If I acted like this kid was acting I would have deserved the same treatment. Kids are not robots that a parent can make do what they want with a remote control. I highly doubt his mother (as far as I can tell single mother) encouraged him to eat that much. It sounds to me like if he is being raised by a single mom, he needs a father figure in his life. I mean no disrespect for hard working single mothers, but children need both parents to be well rounded, something this society has lost sight of in disastrous numbers.

I heard the other day that for children being born to mothers under 30 some 40% are being raised without a father in their life. That is just not how things should be. What are all of these kids going to do on fathers day when half of the class is making "worlds greatest dad" crafts and half don't even know who their dad is or rarely see him. The family system in this country is in a disastrous state and no one seems to want to do anything about it. Kids walk around at 6 and 8 years old with smart phones playing stupid games like angry birds all day every day, and then spend all night on the internet playing online games. The only social interaction they get with people outside of school is over a headset. I played video games growing up but with other people at my house, and we eventually to a break to go out and throw a basketball or something. Parents these days are raising a generation of technology dependent, socially inept, irresponsible, disrespectful little animals. Even 20 years ago this kind of parenting would have been shameful and it is now a reality of life.

And no, I am not suggesting hitting him with a baton, or spraying mace on him, or shooting him, or any of the other idiotic comparisons being made on here, but clearly he was out of control, and the officer had to make the decision he made, once again with the consent of the parent present. I refuse to feel sorry for the kid being tasered. I really do hope someone finds a way to get the kid in touch with reality, on a diet, in school, and on the path to a productive life, and that hopefully someday he will see that his mother loved him and wanted what was best for him even though he was unwilling to do his part. Someone has to get him down the right path though.

Love seeing all the white knights here saying that the taser was too much. I'd like to see them deal with this 250-lb. brat and see how far they go by that logic. It's hard enough getting a 250-lb. difficult adult to cooperate, much less a selfish child that same size. The cop had few options, and it's about time the child learned he won't get his way all through life. It's better he learned now than later. He's still quite young, he can change himself.

I was raised by a single, hard working mother who was smart enough to throw my drunk father out when I was 5... I grew up as you put it "well-rounded", and so did my sister and brother. We were polite, well mannered, respected adults and got in little trouble. I went on to have 4 of my own kids and threw out their drunk father as well. My kids grew up the same way I did. I'm a firm believer children "learn what they live"... so I can only conclude this child is learning to rely on food as a baby sitter, mother, father and friend. And I hope & will pray he gets the help he needs.

For the record... I was done having my kids by the time I was 25 and they turned out beautifully if I do say so myself... go figure.

I didn't say the every man is worthy of being a father. No one of either sex should have to live with a drunk or abusive partner (yes I personally know someone who has an abusive drunk woman in their life), and that is a situation that must be dealt with. Did any of your kids have a male figure in their life that they looked up to by any chance? I never said a single parent cannot raise children successfully, that would be obviously not true. Do you think it is a good thing that almost half of children being born to young women today do not have their father in their lives? I am not here to judge you, or criticize your parenting, only point out that the healthy model of a married father and mother, with the help of friends and family has been raising children for thousands of years. How will a large scale change in that parenting system change society into the future?

Police shouldn't taser a person that isn't an adult. The kid posed no threat other than being fat and ornery. I think that the law are just a bunch of spiteful bullies and they enjoy using their weapons when ever they get a chance. And i bet the kid gets teased at school by more bullies so now he is traumatized, he hates school and he hates police. And these are supposed to be things that help us be good citizens. This boy is 225 now how big will he be when he get "big'? And now he may just start being abusive to others just because of the failure of his parents and police and school to help the poor guy.

Agreed. My question is how does arresting a kid for not going to school solve the problem? Do they think a 9 year old understands consequences of not getting a high school diploma, or anything other then video games and TV? Why would this even be something that would require law enforcement "intervention" and not a counselor or social services or something else? Nine years old and 250 pounds? Did anyone think that there might be an underlying problem with WHY the kid doesn't want to go to school (bullying, depression, diabetes, etc..)?

What is sick is how this 9 year old acted. He did not follow orders. He is skipping school. For a 9 year old to be 200-250 lbs is seriously overweight which says his mother is not taking good care of him.

There are consequences for every action. Maybe next time he will have learned.

If the cop did not have a taser gun, I suspect he probably would have just pulled a revolver and shot this CHILD.

Really? Do you really think that? Or are we perhaps just being a tad dramatic?

Cops don't like for their commands to be disobeyed. He probably would have drawn his revolver. This is ridiculous to taser a 9-year-old--twice! There are other ways to deal with unruly children.

The headline is super-deceptive - he was tasered for resisting arrest (as requested by the "parent", evidently.) The cop would have been wise to just call Child Protective Services to report suspected child abuse, and let the social workers handle it. The 250-lb, out-of-control 9-year-old is obviously in a situation with completely inept guardians or has a serious mental illness - maybe both.

I agree that there is another reason why the child is skipping school. Instead of shocking him, why not try and HELP him, try to find out what's wrong?

Oh wait, I know why not. Because this was the ONLY way *sarcasm*.

I agree with Dan.

You idiots are completely stupid. This is a nine year old boy, think back to when you were nine. Nine year olds don't behave well anyway. If the pig can't control a nine year old maybe he should not be in that field for work, maybe he should see if McDonalds is hiring. So you taze a 9 year old, what do you think that nine year old will grow up to be. This could have been handled a totally different way. Tazers should be against the law since it is against the Eight Amendment.

Eighth Amendment – Prohibition of excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment.Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.Tazers are soooooo unusual and cruel. Most people think bark collars are bad but its okay if it is a human; are you all stupid.

Too many cops are enamoured of their Tasers - just can't wait to use them.

Any officer who is unable to handcuff a 250-lb individual (man, woman or child), needs to call for back up. There is obviously a sevier lack of people skills, and problem solving skills on the officers part. I don't care if the 9-year old is 100-lb or 250-, this is still a CHILD.

I think the mother HAS A PROBLEM, allowing her child to be tazed. She is obviously out of control, in her own home, unable to direct her own child, powerless to change the problem at hand. It sounds like a much deeper problem. WHY doesn't the 9-yr old want to go to school? Could it be because he's being bullied? At 250-lb, I'm sure he doesn't look like any other 9-yr old kid in his class. Sounds like to me that the mother as well as the child need some help, on every level.

In my way of thinking, the officer should have called for back up the VERY MINUTE the kid lay on the floor, resisting. Let him lay there while you wait for back up, who cares. With kids as young as 9, as well as being so overweight, there could have been some VERY SERIOUS repercussions from the taze. I think all involved need to count their lucky stars, and I hope the officer gets some more training in how to handle difficult situations.

The problem is if the officer goes to work at McDonalds, he's going to run in to the kid a lot more...

In all seriousness, the article is poorly written in that it says the child was on his hands and flailing at the same time. Flail fighting is not particularly effective, but can hurt if you make a lucky connection (I've been on the receiving end of that several times). There is talk about the kid being overweight as a result of the parents. Maybe that's true, but at that point, the kid needs to learn a life lesson about his size and how to wield his considerable mass without endangering others. I outgrew my teachers (and most adults) by the time I was in middle school (12 years old in my area). If I was flailing my body in an attempt to defy them, I would expect them to bring more people (not a particularly viable option since he's the only full time officer) or use tools provided to incapacitate me to remove the threat. It was drilled into my head from a very early age that being as big as I am, any violence is going to be scrutinized much more so than a normal person's.

Was the taser excessive? Maybe, there isn't enough information as to why the officer was forced to make an arrest or if the officer perceived themselves to be in danger due to the fighting. I will say that any 250 pound creature is going to give me pause if I have to make it do something that it doesn't want to do...

Did the kid learn a valuable life lesson like go to school, don't fight with your parents, and obey orders given by the police? We can only hope so...

No, now we treat 9 year old 250lb kids that don't want to obey the authority that society has given to the officer like the criminals that they are.

Oh my how did the Po Po deal with people before there were teasers? Poor training, poor officers, and drastically under funded, I mean come on the chief makes less than fifty grand a year. To hire officers that can do this job cost money and they must be highly trained. Barney Fife was not a roll model for police.

Blaming the officer here is wrong, he did what he had to given the situation. You can't call sympathy on the child just because he's a kid, come on now.

Gramps, the cop probably weighed less than the 9 year old.

Being shocked with a taser constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment", especially if you have not committed a crime.

I don't know what's wrong with people in this country that they would be okay with such casual use of a deadly weapon by authorities - especially in cases of civil, not criminal, behavior.

until you have a child that refuses to attend school....No matter what you do...Day after day.......You will never know what this mom is going through.....My son went through this for 2 years and its terrible and almost caused our family to completely fall apart...Did you know if a child doesn't attend school, the parent eventually goes to jail in some states? F- That........I work hard every single day..I have my entire life...Went to college, paid for it myself, etc......If my son refuses a free education to eventually become a drain on society, then he should get a kick in the ass..or a taze...kids these days are spoiled @!$%#s....I never raised him to be this way, but when he hit 14, his mind turned to mush...... (Well adjusted kid, popular, smart, athletic, lots of friends, no drugs, (tested), etc— It happens...............

This kid was refusing lawful orders.... 200+ pounds.... what did you want the cop to do... tackle him to the ground and forcibly handcuff him...? or just let him walk away....? i wouldn't of wanted to... but i probably would of tazed this kid to... he had plenty of chances to cooperate.... parents are to damn soft these days... always willing to spare their kids the consequences of their actions.... this is how the kid will learn to obey officers.

Has everyone lost their minds? This is totally insane! I have a son who was a discipline problem in elementary school. After several calls from the principal to pick him up from school, I had to ask the question, "Are you telling me that a seven year old has bested everything you learned in college? Do you really not understand that he wants to go home and you are reinforcing him?" Did he really go to college for years only to learn to call the parent? If you can't have a positive influence on children and be directive, why are you a principal?

With this in mind, have we really given weapons to police who are too inept or too lazy to gain compliance of unarmed suspects without using weapons of any kind? Let alone tasering a child.

Can there be any justification for using a weapon, non-lethal or otherwise, on a nine year old? I don't care of he was 500#. He didn't have a weapon and he wasn't threatening the officer. If parents tasered a nine year old for having a tantrum they would be in jail. Why isn't this officer? How can you have a rational discussion about tasering a non threatening nine year old? Weapons are supposed to be a last resort, not a short cut for an inept officer who clearly has no idea of boundaries. I hope the parents (who sound like pieces of work themselves) end up owning the whole town and that this 'officer' goes to jail for assaulting a minor.

You never threw a tantrum as a kid? Do you think you should have been tasered for it?

The only thing more shameful than this officer's actions is a society so numbed by government and police abuses and violence in general, that they don't immediately recognize this as a travesty. It would be an abuse if it were done to a non compliant, unarmed adult. But a nine year old? Shame shame!

A bus route I used to take home every night also picked up kids from a local charter school who were 10-12 y.o. Every night it was the boys swinging from the hand rails, screeching, and screaming 'I'mma rape you b*itch!" at their female classmates who, frighteningly, took it as a compliment. The bus driver finally got sick of it and tried to kick them off. The kids refused at first and even threatened to stab the driver. Once off the bus, one ran into the street to keep the bus from pulling away and the others jumped onto the bike rack to start jumping up and down. I wish someone had taken a taser to those little SOBs.

okay david... please enlighten us and the officer how you would of gotten the kid to listen after repeated verbal attempts

It seems pretty clear by reading the article that the kid was not responding to repeated attempts to do what the officer said by the officer and the parent. The parent gave concent for the level of force to be used since the child clearly decided to lose control on purpose instead of doing what he was asked. Obviously the kid needs help, sometimes that help includes learning proper discipline and respect for authority.

MireV03,

I'm not a trained professional, I simply know better than to teach children that the best way to gain compliance is with violence. This is a great lesson for a kid who already has trouble with rules

What about the obvious? How long can a kid lay on his hands with two supposed adults standing over him? What if they waited him out? What if mom threatened to withhold food? Sounds like this would be a prime motivator for this kid. That's just two ideas in thirty seconds of a layman thinking about it. Why did the cop need immediate compliance out of a nine-year old? What was at risk? What were the consequences of just waiting him out?

Frankly, if you are defending adults using a weapon on an unarmed, non threatening nine year old, I think your enlightenment is beyond my abilities.

Bizzer,

You are talking about aggressive, threatening and actively disruptive students. What does that have to do with tasering a nine year old, laying on the floor of his home?

RealAmericanfirst

It wasn't a punishment. The child was resisting arrest. Being arrested was the punishment.

In any case, the officer may have gone a bit far in tasering the child. A 9 year old resisting arrest doesn't constitute pain. Now if it were a hormone enraged teenager, I might understand.

David - You're the voice of reason. As a parent myself and just a person, I can't understand why it was imperative to tase the child. Doesn't matter if he was even bigger. A child was tased because he wouldn't get off the floor? There was nothing else to do?

I think, too, there is a bigger issue here and that is the use of tasers by police for non-compliance of instructions given. They are a great tool and (usually) provide a less than lethal amount of force but not listening isn't necessarily a reason to use one. Particularly if the person not listening is 9 years old.

David-SF Bay Area - so exactly what are you supose to do with a spoiled little 7 year old that is throwing a tantrum in the class. Leave him there so that none of the other kids can get an education. Asign a teacher to spend the whole day with him alone (whoes going to pay for that?) Put him in a room alone so that if he hurts himself, parents such as yourself will file suit. The best thing that can be done with kids like that are to hand them back to the parents and let them baby sit.

I'm not for tazers either, the cop should have worn out his nightstick on his big *&&

David in SF, If my principal called my parents and said they had to come pick me up and take me home I guarantee you the absolute last place I would have wanted to go was home. Don't blame the school for YOUR failure as a parent!!!! What did you do? Stop and McDonalds on the way home, get him something to eat and send him to his room. His room with a TV, Stero, laptop, cell phone, I pad, I pod, wireless Internet etc etc etc.

Cannon, you ask a reasonable question. Devil's Son seems to have an active imagination, based on a total absence of facts. When I got home after being sent home for misbehaving it wasn't pleasant. Nor was it for my kid. First, I care more about my kids than to take them to McDonalds, EVER! This all happened before 90% of what you are talking about existed. My wife and I specifically decided that a TV in the children's room was inappropriate. My son's room was filled with books and nothing else.

After my confrontation with the principal and my son learned he couldn't escape school so easily, he stopped being a disturbance to the other children in class. Somehow when the 'professionals' started doing their job, my son learned to behave appropriately. Anyone who accuses someone of being a parental failure simply because their kid was inappropriate in school is clearly not a parent. If they already knew how to conduct themselves in society, why would we send them to school? Socialization is as important, if not more so, than the 3R's.

I take your point about needing to serve the other students. My objection was their taking the easy out and being lazy. My point was made by the fact that the situation was resolved rather easily. Had the problem persisted, i would have expected the school to call my wife and I in for a strategies conference, rather than just sending him home. I guess you don't have very high expectations of your school system.

My problem with Cannon's reaction is simple. The mindset that says that we teach a child how to interact with others by having his parents baby-sit is the same mindset that thinks the best way to get a nine year old off the floor is with a taser. My son went on to have a successful school career and is currently in college.

It's not like I don't get your point. i do, and in many ways agree with it. I don't think that the other students should suffer for my son's misbehavior. At the same time, if it isn't violent, chronic behavior, turning children to positive ways to express themselves is what school is supposed to be all about. Maybe if I share the fact that I was a middle school teacher in an inner city setting who was frustrated with what my rich suburban school considered worthy of calling anti-social, you can be more sympathetic with my position.My objection wasn't with sending him home as a last resort, it was with sending him home as a first option. Isn't this why we don't recruit ditch diggers as substitute teachers? Making more than a minimal effort and coming up with solutions is supposedly what they train for. It's what I trained for.

SF, your kid should have learned that going home did not mean his school day was over. As soon as he/she got home you should have started school again. I spent two years as a school attendance and safety officer. I have dealt with dozens and dozens of parents like you. You are the enabler. On Monday you are all please Mr. Principal help me with my child and on Tuesday it's why are you messing with my precious little gift to the world's self esteem. If they had to send your kid home more than ONCE it was your fault. My point was YOU let going home be better than staying at school. After the second time I would have spent a day in my daughter's classroom or classrooms during school and embarrassed the living sh!t out of her.

Devil's Son,

Yeah you know everything but the facts. If you're so clairvoyant about a situation that you weren't present for, how come my actions worked? It wasn't that I made home friendly. It was that they used it as a first option. Talk about cherry picking your reading. How come when I suggested to the school that they were being manipulated by a seven year old, it stopped? But you know everything. It must have been coincidence. I am an enabler for stopping the behavior. If I were your daughter, I'd be embarrassed to have you in my classroom too.

The cop should have tasered the mom too, for being such a bad parent.

Handcuffing the boy in his home would do nothing but harm the kids self esteem

Are you being serious? The kid was skipping school and then physically resisting a police officer. I don't think self-esteem issues are among his problems. People with no self-esteem just roll over and do what they're told.

Rethink the situation. Here is a kid skipping school, for what reason we don't know, but let's assume he is bullied, teased, whatever for being overweight. Now an officer walks into your house (a symbol of the authority and power that you have NONE of, and reminiscent of the people that are bullying you) and tells you he is going to take you to jail. This is a NINE YEAR old kid. They were TRYING to intimidate an scare him into complying. What if he wasn't arrogantly refusing, but crying and terrified of being arrested? Can you imagine that scenario?

Children are children, we can't expect them to think and act like adults. There was no reason this child needed to be arrested. He wasn't a danger to himself or anyone else. Nothing that was going to happen at the police station couldn't have happened at that home. This was an example of a barely trained volunteer officer who didn't know of any other reaction other then force.

Some people just shouldn't be allowed to have children period. Skipping school is not against the law last time I checked, but bad parenting is, where is the social service nazis on this.

Futureshock2012, You aptly replied to Chris before I could.

For god sake, he is a 9-year old. A 9-year old is a 9-year old in terms of emotional development no matter how overweight the boy is. Police officer is NOT a GOD.

I have kids in the same age group and I know how my girls would react / feel if ever they were put in a similar situation. They would cry, run away and tuck behind their mother, if ever a cop tries to handcuff them for no reason.

Chris, grow up man.

Sadly, you're wrong. Skipping school IS against the law in most states, and bad parenting (as long as there's no abuse) is NOT illegal.. otherwise there would be a huge number of people in jail. Seems backwards, but that's our society for you.. the whole situation is sad.

Skipping school is not against the law last time I checked

Yes,it is against the law in a lot of states.In Florida where I live you WILL go to jail if your child misses,I believe it was 20 days out of the semester.Even if you have a note from a doctor,that will only get you 3 excused absences.It doesn't matter what your excuse is for the kid,you still go to jail.Even if you didn't know they were skipping school,you still go to jail.

@ saraos so if a kid is going thru chemo and misses more then 20 days in a semester the parents will go to jail

Parents can be held responsible for their child's absences. Especially since the child is so young. As parents, we are completely responsible for them at that age.The fact that the mother called the police means that she was at her wits end. This big, defiant child was probably giving her the blues. If she didn't have a problem with the child being tazed then, why should we?

"Skipping school is not against the law last time I checked."

"Yes, it is against the law in a lot of states."

...But should it be against the law? Should teenagers who hate school be required to attend?

As a former school attendance officer I can tell you it is illegal for you to fail to educate your child. In most states that means once you register a child for school you must send them. But you do not have to register your child for school and in many states you don't have to meet any standards to homeschool your child nor does the child have to take any tests to prove you are actually schooling the child at home. While doing that job a neighboring town had dozens of parents arrested for failure to educate. Mostly the mothers so the father could work. I personally went to two homes with the police and notified the parents that if their child did not attend school regularly that I and the police officer would be back to arrest the mother (in both cases she was the custodial parent). The district regularly fought with district line jumping parents over this. Our neighboring district would chase them into moving into my district. I would chase them back and they would chae them back. Each time they moved it started the process all over. The dirty little secret is in many states all you have to do is say homeschooling and the school and police have to walk away even if the kid is registered in a school and you did not go and file the papers to remove the child from school.

If the government is going to demand public schools be 100% proficient, then yes, truancy should come back on the parents.

Your right, of course, it would have been much better to simply beat him into submission with a billy club or rubber hose, like the good old days.....a few broken bones, bruises and bleeding, several days in the hospital recovering....yeah, that's a lot better. Remember, the issue was he wouldn't obey a police officer...what would you have the officer do? Walk away? Not going to happen.....

Redbull,in some states,you can go to jail for your child missing too many days of school.Would you be willing to go to jail just because your kid didn't want to get an education? And it is hurting someone,it is hurting the child.He obviously needs help,with his weight and other things too.Do you think that sitting on the couch at home all day is going to get him what he needs and make him a productive member of society? I seriously doubt it.

Clearly she is not "allow"ing her child to not attend school and become obese. He is clearly out of control and not listening to her. You calling her a loser and saying that she need parenting classes is not helpful. I am sure she already feels like a failure of a mother for needing to call the police to tell her son that he has to go to school. Clearly if she felt there was something she could do differently she would have already tried it. Some kids legitimately have authority issues. I get the idea from the story, and please correct me if there is something I missed, that she is a single mother. A boy needs a father in his life, to teach him authority and respect, and the value of hard work, and to just plain talk to him on "man to man" terms, something even the most dedicated single mother cannot do, because she is not a man.

That's almost 100 lbs more than me and I'm a full-grown, average height male. Unless this kid has a freakish pituitary gland, he's gotta be wider than he is tall.

So what if the 9 year old weighed 200 - 250 pounds. The kid has to be so morbidly obese he cant even touch his toes or walk across the street without becoming short of breath. Like that would make him a serious threat. What would he do? Sit on the cop? Any physical activity short of walking a few feet would probably cause the kid to throw a PE or have an aneurysm in his head.

The empathy shown here for a nine year old is amazing. If there were people like you at his school it's no wonder he didn't want to go.

Future shock agree, the parents is to be blamed, not the 9 year old.

Damn Chris, you're a twinky. I'm 5'9", 200lbs, 32 waist.

That is a rediculous assumption to make about someone's situation that you do not know. When I was growing up two of my best friends were in a family with altogether 5 children, and one of them got caught up in drugs, ran away from home for multiple periods at a time, was physically and verbally confrontational with his parents when he was home, and had to be sent away to a millitary school to teach him respect and discipline. None of the other 4 kids in the family had any such issues. Sometimes a kid just gets out of control, and chooses to not listen to athority, and has to be corrected. Clearly he has a long way to go, but someone eventually has to tell him NO you cannot just do whatever you like with yourself if you want to be a productive member of this society.

What is wrong, is I see a lot of bad parenting going on, that's what I see.

Then lets start punishing the parents. A kid doesn't go to school then charge the parents. After all it is the law that "parents must send their children under age 16 to school unless they are homeshcooling".

their could be a medical problem that makes him weigh that much, WE DO NOT KNOW THE DETAILS, but people assume the parents let him eat whatever and whenever he wants

Awesome! I bet the brat will move his ass from now own. I bet with your attitude your kids are just as bad.

you have a 9year boy who weight ..200/250 ...... proberly is the reason for not being at scool where I am sure he will be bullied............ mom needs to work on a diet for him or a lapband...... althought the officer was going to tase him nomatter what. this is touture and could of cause a heart attact and causin siezures. are there not enough COPS THAT CAN ACT RESPSIBLIY SO i BLAME THE COP AND THE MOTHER

Hey, the kid is as big as a pro football player...and could probably kick your ass as well.....taser sounds about right.....

Are you that clueless? The kid's not BIG he's overweight.

Hey Grandfather 2041741 were your parents brother and sister? Its obvious you have the reasoning ability of stone. He wasn't big, try morbidly obese. Since you think tasering a 9 year old is ok, you have to be an inbred violence prone imbecile

Bingo! If they're not learning in the classroom then at least the district is being paid, but if they're not learning at home then the system is loosing money. THAT'S why it's illegal for a kid not to attend school.. but it's not illegal for a school to hire incompetent teachers and provide a poor education.

@ Futureshock2012

Your attitude and ignorance make me want to throw up. I am just sure that the public school teachers are begging for more truant children just so the district can get paid and they can be labeled a failing school...

NJR - you're right on the money. I'm old enough to remember when if I got sent home to school with a letter for my parents I ran the risk of getting smacked on the butt - it rarely happened that I got smacked, but the threat was there.

But somewhere along the line we, as a society, got the idea that hitting kids was wrong and we ASKED for governmental interference to protect kids from abusive parents. And yes, there were some.

What we now have is the entirely predictable result of letting that particular camel's nose under the tent, in that governments at all levels have become so intrusive that parents have virtually no rights in disciplining a child, teacher and educational professionals have even fewer, and every response to some perceived wrong results in a call for police intervention.

Clearly a 200 lb 9 y.o. is a victim of abuse at home, and possibly at school too (though nothing in the article suggests that). Equally clearly, a 9 y.o. can not be held to the same standards of behavior that an adult can be - even a healthy child's brain isn't fully wired that way, and this kid wasn't healthy by any standard that I've read about.

It's entirely possible that the child - through repeated but never carried out threats from his mother - simply didn't believe that the cop would taser him. The cop here has the greater responsibility for rational behavior, and he failed miserably. The mother has responsibility for the proper raising - including both behavior and nutrition - of her child, and she's failed miserably.

Get the cop a job he can handle that doesn't involve the opportunity to brutalize others, get the mom parenting classes and restrict her ability for further procreation, and get that kid into an environment where he can get healthy physically and mentally.

Or just write them all off.

@oldgaffer-1714383

I don't disagree with your assessment of the parent in question or the role that has been stripped away from them by our society, but I have to politely disagree 100% with your assessment of the police officer as this is a perfect set of conditions for employing the taser gun.

Have you ever been 'tased' where you can speak from experience? I feel pretty comfortable in assuming that you, most assuredly, have not and don't know what you're talking about in that respect. It doesn't inflict any kind of long term pain and it's completely harmless unless you're one of the .000001% of people who died after being tased. The recourse to using the taser would've been to try and physically remove the child or waste time trying to reason with a subject who's being totally uncooperative. I'd like to see you forcible remove 200-250 pounds of 'resisting arrest' and then come back to share your thoughts on the whole experience.

You'll notice he had to use it on him twice, at which point the child became compliant and followed directions. I know you'd probably like the officer to have sat down and 'talked it over' with the kid, maybe convince him to listen to his parents and start acting more responsible; but that's not how the real work works. The whole concept behind the use of a taser gun is compliance through non-lethal and non-physical means.

The only shame in this story is that any of the police force related to this story have to suffer any consequence whatsoever when they're simply trying to do their job which the parents are clearly unable to do on a number of social levels as far as the child's well being is concerned. A job, which i'd like to remind everyone, that gets WORSE and WORSE every single year b/c of idiotic stories like this and the police being taken to task for their methods just b/c someone was offended.

Sono... Have you ever been 'tased' where you can speak from experience?

@Kat-1745504

Yes, 3 times actually. The physical effects are short lived and you're fine after a short period of time.