LAKELAND – A Lakeland police officer said he had no other choice than to use his Taser on a 13-year-old student at Southwest Middle School.
According to the arrest report, student Unique Young had been removed from class for acting up. However, she refused to sit in the office and wait for her parents to come pick her up.
The school’s resource officer, Edward Lori, was alerted of Young’s refusal to wait in the front office. The police report says Lori joined the confrontation between Young and the dean of students in the hallway of the school.
Lori said he asked Young to come with him but she refused. He says in the report that Young “is not a normal-sized 13-year-old child. She is 5’4” weighing 185 pounds and very strong.”
Lori said that the girl continued to disobey his orders for her to move out of the hall. He pulled out his Taser as a way to make her comply, but she kept on screaming.
Lori pointed the taser at the girl and warned her before pulling the trigger.
“She instantly fell to the ground, at which time I ran over to her,” said Lori in his statement.
After that, Young agreed to get up and go into the office. She was arrested by Lori for resisting arrest without violence.
Witnesses backed up the resource officer’s account of what happened. Young was taken to a juvenile detention center before being released to her parents.
I can’t figure out why she went to the office.
OH, she got tasered.