- Police Brutality Watch

The family of a 6-year-old boy shot at school with a police Taser stun gun has filed formal notice that it plans to sue the Miami-Dade County School Board and the Miami-Dade Police Department. In letters dated Nov. 29, David Gordon, one of the boy's attorneys, informed police and school officials of his intent to sue over negligence and civil rights claims. Under Florida law, suits cannot be filed against government agencies until six months after such letters have been written. The boy, a first-grader at Kelsey Pharr Elementary School, was agitated and holding a piece of glass in an assistant principal's office on Oct. 20. Unable to subdue him, administrators called 911. Two county police officers and a schools police officer responded. After a standoff, Miami-Dade officer Marie Abbott zapped the boy after checking first with a supervisor, who told her there was no department policy regarding using a Taser on children. In one letter, Gordon said Abbott acted ''negligently and recklessly'' in shooting the boy with the 50,000-volt Taser, and that the department was negligent ''in the creation of its policy and training program, or lack thereof with regard to the use of Tasers on a child of tender years.'' In the other letter, he said the district was negligent for hiring and not properly training the staff involved in the incident. Miami-Dade Police Director Bobby Parker has previously defended use of the stun gun, saying it was the safest way to get control of the boy so he could not harm anyone. [more]