Make My Day, Kid

Jacksonville, FL - State Attorney Harry Shorstein said Wednesday that excessive force may have been used by police officers who used a stun gun on a 13-year-old girl who was being uncooperative after they took her into custody for fighting with her mother. The 65-pound girl was handcuffed in the back of a patrol car Feb. 7 when she was shocked twice with a 50,000-volt Taser, according to a Sheriff's Office report.

Philadelphia - A 10-year-old girl was placed in handcuffs and taken to a police station because she took a pair of scissors to her elementary school. School district officials said the fourth-grade student did not threaten anyone with the 8-inch shears, but violated a rule that considers scissors to be potential weapons.

Miami - Police say a 6-year-old Florida boy wasn't hurt when they shocked him with a 50,000-volt taser to keep him from cutting himself with a piece of glass. "We know the child was not harmed other than the little tiny probe pricks you get with the taser.

Seattle Times. Through February of the 2004-2005 school year, 29 students have been handcuffed during the school day. Several dozen more were cuffed at after-hours events. At this rate, the district likely will shackle more kids this year than last, when the practice made national headlines and prompted a lawsuit by the Seattle chapter of the NAACP. Two of the students handcuffed this year were middle-schoolers. The rest are in high school. Last year, security also manacled four elementary students.

Philadelphia - Two 9 year-olds and a 10 year-old, third grade students at Willard Elementary in the School District of Philadelphia, were arrested and taken from school in handcuffs. The 10 year-old was charged with having a weapon on school property, the other two were held but not charged. Joseline Perez, 9, said the canister of Mace fell out of her friend's pocket when they were on the playground. She thought it was perfume, she said, and as she picked it up, it discharged toward the ground.

Tallahassee. It was a typical scuffle between two youngsters - some name-calling, a slap on the face, a punch to the stomach. After it was over, however, Tallahassee police handcuffed the 8-year-old boy who picked the fight and took him to a juvenile facility Monday night, charging him with misdemeanor battery and criminal mischief.

Espanola, NM. "The Legislature never envisioned that the law would be used to lock an 8-year-old in any jail, especially an adult jail," attorney Sheri Raphaelson said. According to a juvenile citation for disorderly conduct, Jerry Trujillo was arrested Thursday and booked into the Espanola jail after he "got out of control and refused to go back to class."

Monticello, FL - The mother of a 7-year-old Florida boy said he's too young to have been arrested, booked, fingerprinted and taken to a juvenile facility. Sheriff's officials in Monticello said they didn't have a choice because a warrant for battery charges had been issued for the child. He's 4-foot-6 and weights 60 pounds. He's accused of hitting a classmate, a teacher and a principal, and scratching a school resource officer.

St. Petersburg, FL - A 5-year-old girl was arrested, cuffed and put in back of a police cruiser after an outburst at school where she threw books and boxes, kicked a teacher in the shins, smashed a candy dish, hit an assistant principal in the stomach and drew on the walls.

Haiti. Nevertheless, at midnight, all the people in So Anne’s house, including her 5-year-old great grandson, Shashou, were forced to the ground and handcuffed by U.S. Marines armed with heavy artillery - a 5-year-old Haitian child, handcuffed by the world's most powerful soldiers at midnight in his own grandmother's home! The children’s pet dogs were shot to death for barking at the Marines.