By Steven Elbow
The Capital Times
Police used a Taser Wednesday to subdue the irate mother of a 17-year-old male who was being searched.
The incident happened at Memorial High School at about 11:30 a.m. when educational resource officer Shannon Blackamore had custody of the 17-year-old, who wasn’t a student at the school, for a tobacco violation.
School officials, aware of the teen’s criminal history, called for officers, and Blackamore arrived and handcuffed and searched him.
The student’s 14- and 15-year-old sisters, who are students at the school, called their mother, Jacquelyn L. Lightfoot, 37, to apprise her of the situation, and Lightfoot went to the school office and launched a verbal assault on Blackamore, police spokesman Howard Payne said.
Lightfoot’s actions escalated and she became physical with Blackamore, and the officer found himself surrounded in a confined space by Lightfoot and the two girls.
After unsuccessfully trying to quell the situation, Blackamore, who determined that the woman was the primary threat, utilized the Taser, which brought the situation to a manageable level, Payne said.
Lightfoot was taken to a hospital for injuries she suffered prior to being zapped, but police would not provide details about those injuries. She was tentatively charged with disorderly conduct and resisting an officer. The two girls were tentatively charged with the juvenile equivalent of the same charges.
“It is understandable that parents would be concerned about the welfare of their children,” Payne said. “But school officials and police would expect that parents would be appropriate in utilizing the correct mode of conflict resolution.”
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