COP PEPPER SPRAYS SCHOOL KIDS: SAY'S "THEY AIN'T MOVING FAST ENOUGH"
"Everybody started hollering and we had people just gagging and throwing up"
Seventeen students were injured and three sent to the hospital at Jack Robey Junior High School in Pine Bluff, Ark. when a police officer used pepper spray to clear them from a hallway because students were "not moving fast enough". Superintendent Jerry Payne confirmed a school resource officer did spray the kids and said he did it to force students inside classrooms. Payne said the students took too long to get to class. Pine Bluff police spokesman Lt. Bob Rawlinson said the police department and will not be issuing a press release about the incident. The very idea of spraying a painful caustic substance into a crowed school hallway as a motivator is the definition of not just negligence but assault and battery. There is an obvious basis here for a lawsuit. Not only can a tort case be filed, it would seem a valid case for not just compensatory but punitive damages. Both the school and the police department are potential defendants as well as the individual officer since this was done within the scope of his employment. While officers are always given immunity in abuse cases, such immunity is generally lost in cases of abusive treatment in violation of both law and policy. Police departments should not endorse the use of pepper spray as a school hall motivator.
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"Everybody started hollering and we had people just gagging and throwing up"
Seventeen students were injured and three sent to the hospital at Jack Robey Junior High School in Pine Bluff, Ark. when a police officer used pepper spray to clear them from a hallway because students were "not moving fast enough". Superintendent Jerry Payne confirmed a school resource officer did spray the kids and said he did it to force students inside classrooms. Payne said the students took too long to get to class. Pine Bluff police spokesman Lt. Bob Rawlinson said the police department and will not be issuing a press release about the incident. The very idea of spraying a painful caustic substance into a crowed school hallway as a motivator is the definition of not just negligence but assault and battery. There is an obvious basis here for a lawsuit. Not only can a tort case be filed, it would seem a valid case for not just compensatory but punitive damages. Both the school and the police department are potential defendants as well as the individual officer since this was done within the scope of his employment. While officers are always given immunity in abuse cases, such immunity is generally lost in cases of abusive treatment in violation of both law and policy. Police departments should not endorse the use of pepper spray as a school hall motivator.
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE
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