Police investigate use of stun gun on 12-year-old

LOS ANGELES -- Hawthorne police have launched a misconduct investigation of an officer who used a 50,000-volt stun gun on a violent autistic 12-year-old boy at one of the city's middle schools, authorities said.

Such use of electroshock weapons by police on young students is rare, but high-profile incidents have sparked fierce debate around the U.S. over when, if ever, Tasers should be used on children. At the same time, an increasing number of police departments are equipping school-based officers with them, according to the leading maker of the weapons.

Supporters of deploying Tasers in schools say they allow officers to safely detain unruly students without resorting to batons or other physical force. But critics argue that little research has been done on the medical effects of shocking children and that using Tasers on minors is inappropriate.

"This is a question of common sense. ... You don't discharge a Taser at a child absent the most extreme circumstances," said Michael Gennaco, a former federal prosecutor who monitors internal discipline of deputies for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

A police spokesman in Hawthorne, a city of 90,000 about 15 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles, said the department launched an internal investigation in response to a complaint by the parents of the boy days after the Sept. 23 incident. He said department officials are now reviewing the findings to determine whether the officer followed the agency's rules on using Tasers.

The U.S. Department of Justice's research arm found that safety studies on the effects of stun guns might not be applicable to small children. The Police Executive Research Forum has discouraged officers from using Tasers on young children and other vulnerable people, such as pregnant women.

Some police departments, including those in New York and Las Vegas, have restricted use of the weapons on minors. Los Angeles Unified School District police officers do not carry Tasers, a district spokeswoman said.

The Hawthorne Police Department's policy on Tasers says that officers "may consider other options" before deploying the weapons on a juvenile but does not otherwise limit their use on children.

Hawthorne Police Lt. Michael Ishii said police were called to Hawthorne Middle School after a student grabbed a counselor in a threatening manner and punched and kicked a security guard who intervened. The boy, described as about 5 feet 7 and 130 to 150 pounds, threatened to kill staff members and continued assaulting the guard, who tried to protect other staffers, he said.