No Tasers In Mobile Schools

The Mobile County School Board voted Monday night against allowing school security personnel to carry and use Tasers, even after receiving training.
The school board meeting began with two people speaking against the Taser proposal.
Carolyn May said, "I know we need discipline, fine. But I think we're overreacting and we're going too far."
Doris Edwards said, "You know the Taser can knock a man down. Now, what is it going to do to a child."
Then, Superintendent Roy Nichols and board members offered their thoughts.
Nichols said, "These people (security guards) need something to protect themselves when they go into the building in the middle of the night and there are intruders there."
School Board Member Levon Manzie said, "If a resource officer comes upon a criminal in a school building that has a gun, that bullet is going to beat the Taser."
Board Member Reginald Crenshaw said, "I, too, support the weapons at night when children are not on campus to secure facilities. I do not support any type of weapon such as a gun or a Taser during the day when children are there."
Board Member Judy Stout spoke in favor of the proposal, and talked about the shooting death at Davidson High School last year.
Stout said, "I watched several times the video of the young man shooting himself at Davidson last year. Had there been a resource officer with a Taser, he (the victim) brandished the gun, he threatened, et cetera, that young man would be alive today.
The school board voted three to two against the proposal.
Voting against the Tasers were Manzie, Crenshaw, and Bill Meredith.
Stout and Ken Megginson voted for them.
The school board also voted three to two against signing a contract for more than $156,000 with the company that administers the ACT college preparatory test.
The contract would have allowed all juniors to take the ACT for free on a weekday.