POLICE STATE - 8 Year Old Boy Pepper Sprayed By Cops For Throwing A Temper Tantrum

What's the appropriate way to calm an eight-year old who's throwing a violent temper tantrum? Talk him down? Send him to the principal's office? Pepper-spray him -- twice?

Police in Lakewood, Colo., opted for the latter tactic to subdue Aiden Elliot after the second-grader threatened teachers and students with a piece of wooden wall trim, which he held like a knife.

"I kind of blow up a little," the boy admitted to ABC News. "I said I'm going to kill you...."

Aidan, who is in a class for children with behavioural problems, said his teachers had put him in a corner for acting rowdy, and had called his mother. His confinement enraged him.

According to the Associated Press, when asked whether he really intended to injure anyone, Aidan responded: "A little."

"I kind of deserved it," he acknowledged.

Aidan's mother Mandy Elliot said she is upset with the school, and is filing a complaint against the police.

"Why didn't they talk to him?" she said. Or, we wonder, remove the stick from his hand? How hard can it be to disarm an 8-year-old?

"He was red, handcuffed, crying screaming how much it burned," she said.

Ms. Elliot added that her son only acts out at school, and is never violent at home with babysitters and family members, nor is he violent at his soccer and swimming activities.

Police defended their decision, saying the situation forced them to act quickly and that no one was injured. School officials, meanwhile, told the press they've been seeing more elementary and pre-school students behaving violently, and are concerned about the problem.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/police-pepper-spray-violen...