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DENVER – The staff at the Colorado elementary school said no one could calm 8-year-old Aidan Elliott.
He had just thrown a TV and chairs and was now trying to use a cart to bust through a door to an office where teachers had taken some young students for safety.
They called the police.
The officers found him with a foot-long piece of wood trim with a knife-like point in one hand and a cardboard box in the other.
"Come get me, f-----," he said.
When they couldn't calm him down, one squirted Aidan with pepper spray. He blocked it with the cardboard box.
A second squirt hit the youngster in the side of the head, and down he went, according to an account of the Feb. 22 standoff in a police report first obtained by KUSA-TV.
Aidan and his mother went on national talk shows on Wednesday to say using pepper spray on an unruly 8-year-old was too much.
Probably - but it sounds like the kid has some serious underlying issues. Nothing a little pepper spray and national talk show appearances can't clear up though.
No, this isn't overkill. The child has a serious issue of unknown nature. He entered a standoff with a weapon in hand and the police did the right thing by not using physical force on the boy. The pepper spray did it's job and the boy wasn't hurt. A tazer or tackling the kid would risk serious injury.
The officers found him with a foot-long piece of wood trim with a knife-like point in one hand and a cardboard box in the other.
"Come get me, f-----," he said.
If a child is holding a weapon and is being belligerent the police do need to find a way to subdue him. Pepper spray is entirely appropriate as it will subdue the child without inflicting long term damage to him.
Why schools should be allowed to spank children..........JUST KIDDING
I saw a short clip of this on TV last night but missed the news report. I personally think the police should have used physical means of controlling the child - not pepper spray. I mean REALLY, He's 8 years old. These are full grown adults. It wouldn't have taken much to physically restrain him!!
There is no doubt that the child has some serious issues if he's behaving this way. I think Mom needs some good discipline for her actions, too.
I agree with the police who say that pepper spray was less harmful than their other options.
Also, what the heck is wrong with this mother? Seriously, if my second grader had these issues my first priority would be to get him the help he needed instead of parading him around on television. I would be doing everything I could to 1) get him the help he needs and 2) trying to protect his identity. There's no way I'd want this story following my kid around for the rest of his life.
I'd like to believe that she's using this experience to raise awareness of whatever issue her son is dealing with or even to work with police for coming up with a less painful way to deal issues involving young children; but I fear she's simply exploiting the incident.
I'd want to know how long they tried other stuff (talking him down, trying to hold him etc), but ultimately, I do think the use of pepper spray can be appropriate for a child. This was an extreme situation.
I'd much rather the use of pepper spray than even trying to physically restrain him. Trying to tackle him risks injury to both the officer and the child. The mothers making a stink about pepper spray, imagine what would have happened if they accidentally broke his arm trying to subdue him?
Without being there I can only assume that the officers made the choice that had the least risk to the child and their own safety.
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There is something seriously wrong with this little boy and his mother is parading him on tv?? The gene pool needs so much chlorine it is pathetic.
