Uniontown board discusses use of TASERS
The Uniontown Area School Board discussed the use of TASERS Wednesday and heard from its chief of police, Donald Homer, on use of the devices in the schools. Some members of the public vehemently opposed the school board authorizing three school police officers to carry TASERS.
Mary Hackney of Uniontown said she taught in the Laurel Highlands School District for 35 years and while she had the opportunity to break up skirmishes among students, she never saw where a TASER would benefit.
“I’m very much opposed to this,” Hackney said.
Thelma Layhue of Uniontown agreed, saying she doesn’t see any situation that would require use of a TASER. She instead encouraged the district to explore other security options and look at the state of its current security system.
Jack Rogers of New Salem said he believes the district would open itself up to lawsuits by allowing officers to use TASERS, noting some children could be injured in the process.
“What has brought about the idea of using a TASER?” he asked. “Are our schools in this much trouble to use a TASER?”
He later added, “I feel we’re being rushed as a public. I think you should make us feel comfortable that you have addressed all other issues with security.”
Donald Homer, chief of the Uniontown Area School District police, recommended two officers trained and certified to use TASERS be placed in Ben Franklin School and Franklin and Menallen schools.
Homer said the placement of officers in those schools is based on strategy, noting officers would have a quicker response time to potentially violent situations if stationed in those schools.
He said officers who would be armed with TASERS have worked around schoolchildren and served as municipal police officers for years in addition to being trained and certified to use the weapon by TASER International, the manufacturer of the TASER.
Homer showed a TASER X26 to the audience, noting its features.
He said officers can control when the weapon is turned on and off by using a safety switch and an officer’s target is marked by a small, red circle meant to pinpoint the area of the body that will be hit with a charge emitted via a copper wire.
He said when fired, the wire would penetrate the victim preferably in the shoulder blade about a quarter of an inch. The TASER’s wire can extend up to 21 feet away.
Homer said the TASER emits amps of less than 1 percent, but feels like it delivers an electric charge of about 400,000.
The weapon cannot kill, Homer said.
“It’s not going to shock someone to death,” said Homer.
District officials stressed that the reason they are considering use of the TASERS is not because incidents that could require that level of force have occurred at the schools.
Rather, officials said they are trying to be proactive to ward off potential attackers or have the weapons available to defuse potentially violent situations when and if they do occur.
“I’d rather have it and not use it than not have and need it,” said Homer.
The board must adopt a policy authorizing school police use the weapons before the officers can be armed with them. Right now, officers carry pepper spray and batons, said Homer.
Paul H. Bortz Sr., chairman of the board’s safety/security committee, said the board could approve the first reading of a policy authorizing use of the weapons at the Aug. 18 regular meeting.
The policy would take effect with the board’s final approval, which could take place at the September business meeting, said Bortz.
“We want to have a policy that is acceptable to the parents and public and that other places can use,” said Bortz, noting a disaster like Columbine could happen in Uniontown. “Don’t fool yourself,” he said.
Amnesty International, a human rights organization, recorded more than 290 deaths of individuals in the United States and Canada struck by police TASERS from June 2001 to Sept. 30, 2007.
The U.S. Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice commissioned a two-year study to examine the impact of TASER stun guns and similar electrical weapons after the information was brought to their attention.
According to the Department of Justice, field experience with use of the devices indicates that exposure is safe in the vast majority of cases, so it recommends that law enforcement agencies need not refrain from deploying their use, provided the devices are used in accordance with accepted national guidelines.
The Department of Justice says to avoid using the devices on small children, those with diseased hearts, the elderly or those who are pregnant and other at-risk individuals since the effects of the devices may not be the same as in normal healthy adults.
The Department of Justice also cautions against using the device more than once on the same person.
It said preliminary review of deaths following exposure to its electric charge indicates that many are associated with continuous or repeated discharge of the device. Associated risks from using the device multiple times are unknown, the Department Web site read.
The Department of Justice expects to release a final report into its investigation regarding TASERS in 2009.