Officers used a Taser while taking a student into custody at a Fairfax County, Virginia, high school Monday, police said.
Administrators at Chantilly High School asked a school resource officer to assist with a 16-year-old becoming violent, authorities said. They said he was punching lockers and banging his head against the wall.
"They attempted to negotiate verbally with the student for some time," Fairfax County Police Lt. Brooke Wright said.
The school resource officer, who has crisis intervention team training, found the student in a bathroom and tried to deescalate the situation, police said, but he determined the student was a danger to himself and possibly others and called for backup to take him into custody. Four officers responded.
Officers cuffed one of the student's hands, but the student aggressively resisted, so an officer deployed a Taser with the darts removed so it would shock him without being invasive, Wright said.
"It can inflict a second of pain in order to distract the person," she said.
The teen was taken for a mental evaluation, police said. He was not injured.
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No charges were filed.
"When I heard about it, I honestly felt a twinge of pain," school PTSA President Marianne Maccini said.
She said the incident will be discussed with school leaders to determine if there is another way to respond so Tasers aren't used.
Teachers and administrators are trained in how to deescalate situations, the school district, Fairfax County Public Schools, said, and everyone involved in this incident followed school protocol.
