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Duel over Tasers in Colorado schools

State senator, ACLU raise fears about stun guns

Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 20, 2007 at midnight

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A Democratic state senator and the American Civil Liberties Union are concerned about the use of Tasers by people assigned to keep order in public schools.

Sen. Bob Hagedorn, D-Aurora, said Thursday he's confident that police officers who patrol schools have the training to use Tasers properly. But he's concerned that the weapons, which deliver a shock, will be issued to school district security personnel, who have less training.

"We know a Taser can indeed kill an adult, and . . . a child is not a full-grown adult," Hagedorn said.

"We need to have a thorough discussion about the use of Tasers in security in our schools," said Hagedorn. That discussion should occur at the school districts, not in the legislature, Hagedorn added.

Leaders of the ACLU's Colorado chapter question the training of the law enforcement officers using Tasers.

ACLU Legal Director Mark Silverstein said at least 255 people who were Tasered have died nationwide in the past five years, including two in Colorado in recent months.

Police officers counter that Tasers are less lethal than firearms, and are preferable when confronting a dangerous person in a crowded area.

"A Taser is certainly a better option than a firearm in a school setting," said Lt. Clif Northam of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office announced this week that it has equipped its seven school resource officers with Tasers. They patrol school districts in the unincorporated part of the county.

"The main purpose is to deal with people coming into the schools - intruders," Northam said. But a Taser might be used against an armed student.

Many police departments assign officers to schools. They are called "school resource officers" and carry the same weapons as other officers in their department.

Separately, school districts employ security personnel.

Few if any of the guards employed by Colorado school districts carry Tasers, said Larry Borland, the head of the Colorado Association of School Security and Law Enforcement Officers.

School security workers keep order in schools. They call police when an armed officer is needed, Borland said.

Cathryn Hazouri, executive director of Colorado ACLU, said Tasers are a new wrinkle in a trend she doesn't like - police officers in schools.

"What we are doing as a society now is . . . treating what we would have sent someone to the dean of boys or the dean of girls for as being something that police need to be involved with," Hazouri said.

But Detective Robert Friel of the Aurora Police Department said school resource officers deal with issues far beyond what deans are trained to handle. Aurora officers seized two guns in schools last year, as well as knives, Friel said.

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