I can tell you from visiting 60+ schools per year with my science outreach program that 12-17 year old girls are, by far, the most violent and uncontrollable subset of students. Of course, as soon as you try and discipline one, the parents jump all over you as if their "little angel" was just an innocent victim.

I think the general public would be quite surprised at the number of female fights that occur on City of Atlanta school property. In my opinion the vast majority are a direct result in a failure in parenting. Don't believe me? Ask your teacher friends. You will be shocked.

Kids at that age are strong and fights have broken out since time began. I strongly believe that using a taser is too heavy handed. Officer could have removed everyone else off the bus and asked for back-up. Tasers, are you kidding? Just because you carry the weapons, can you use other skills to stop a fight. There will be more fights! Learn some other techniques until then. Someone probably knew that there was going to be a fight. Do your homework to prevent and de-escalade incidents. What is this world coming to?

I am certainly not defending these girls BUT a taser on 7th graders...what have we become?

If you act like an animal expect to be treated like an animal. I am totally fine with officers using tasers. If my kid had to be tasered at school I would beat the crap out of him when he got home and make him issue an apology to the officer and the school for acting like a complete fool!!! I would be mortified if my child acted like that!!

Drive stun mode is the hand held touch version. It's painful on contact but it doesn't incapacitate the subject. I don't blame the officer for not wanting to get between the two. I don't care how young they are or the difference in size. There were two of them, they have four hands and 20 nails for gouging. Who's to say they both would have attacked him to get at each other?

Tasers are not weapons in the traditional sense. They're non lethal tools to incapacitate someone. I have to figure he ordered them away from each other before using the taser.

Would you rather have the officer beat the children into submission? Should he have talked them down? I can see how the article of that story would play out. You can ask what we've become but it would better to ask what has become of parenting? Who raises kids to act like this?

Call it what it is......Bad Parenting.

it was both appropriate and prudent on the part of the officer. First, his judgement lead him to understand that physically breaking up the fight in the constrained situation of the interior of a bus could cause injury. Second, his use of a Taser rather than physically separating the two girls allowed him to avoid any claim of inappropriate touching girls while stopping the fight. Kudos to him.

If you act like a thug then you will be treated as such no matter your age, races or background. The officer had every right to use his taser on these wild, rude children I bet in the future they will not fight on the bus for fear of the taser. Problem solved!!!!

According to my Inman student, there have been dozens of fights at Inman this year, mostly involving girls, and 100% African-American. Many of these fights involve a fountain of expletives, screaming, hair-pulling, clawing, slapping, etc. Many require an adult to physically step in to break them up -- an adult administrator had to go over a table the other day to break one up in the cafeteria. With this becoming a regular problem, an occasional tasing unfortunately might be what is needed.

Dozens of fights???? Really? That would be more than 24 with lots of the school year left. Either you or your child are exaggerating, or there's a problem in the school that requires an immediate response. Could it be that their are too many children shoehorned onto that campus for the administrators to deal with? Maybe a 6th grade academy in another location or splitting the population between two middle schools might make it easier for administrators to handle their issues.

From what I understand from my Inman student, and from talking to other students, some weeks there are no fights, and some weeks there are 3-4 fights, and on average it's about 1-2 fights per week. They've been in school about 24 weeks so far this school year, so yeah, "dozens" is about right -- or maybe around 25-40 to be more precise with my estimate. I do think some at Inman, and one male administrator in particular, are working hard to stay on top of this. But when you hear about the tasing here, I can see where that is coming from, because it's not like these fights are rare. Also judging from the mother of one of the girls who immediately went on the local news and complained about the APD resource officer that used the taser, but said nothing about her child's own behavior (and apparently it was her child's second fight that same day), there's not necessarily parenting going on that will help stop these fights.

I'm sure the current crowding at Inman is not helping any, but I don't think that's the cause of these fights. As I noted previously, the kids involved in these fights are from a particular segment of the Inman student population, and further from a particular geographic area within the Inman zone. If you split those kids off from Inman and send them to a different school, then the problem just travels with them, and unfortunately also severely impacts anyone who has the misfortune of being sent to a new school with them.

My child also confirms that some weeks there are several fights and some weeks none. The overcrowding causes different issues but I dont think it really has anything to do with fighting. I know that some teachers can control a class to dead silence while others just cant keep kids in their seats. Fighting and misbehaving is always caused by a small group of people. These kids need guidance . They need to be shown how to act appropriately in public. It is terribly sad that they have never been shown, live around people who think this kind of behavior is normal, and cause undue stress on the majority of kids who are not engaging in this type of low class behavior.

As far as the trailers.... now THAT is a huge security risk. I am just waiting for the day when a weapon is brought to school. I heard already one kid was expelled because he shot a bus driver with a pellet gun! Kids fighting with their fists is the beginning. The officer at the school needs to work hard to make sure that it stops there! The taser is a good start!

Ashland88 - last year, we tried to put forth the idea of funneling one of the neighborhoods off to another middle school (Coan). That neighborhood is actually closer to Coan, yet the idea was met with so much resistance it could barely be uttered in a public forum. After hearing about behavior such as this, I get it. It comes down to this: parents who care enough to raise their children in a manner that allows them to be educated, and parents who don't give a darn. Morningside, SPARK and Lin - and subsequently Inman and Grady - are good because the majority of parents who send their kids there are involved and engaged. We don't drop our kids off at the door and expect the teachers to parent our kids FOR us and simply deliver a well educated citizen at the end of the day. We make sure our kids show up, ready to learn and behave. That's OUR job as parents. Anyone who refuses to hold up that part of the bargain should have their privilege to utilize the public school system revoked. Unfortunately, it's the people who care the most and PAY the most money into the system being, literally, squeezed out of our own neighborhood school! Yeah, some will do private school, but for those of us who busted our butts to get into these neighborhoods in the first place AGAIN, because we care about our kids, we're left to suck it up or homeschool.

Our son is a 12 year old 7th grade Honor Role Student at Inman Middle School & along with many of his friends, has been the subject of numerous acts of Bullying, Physical Threats & Violence during both the 6th & 7th grades. Inman's repeated consistent & casual indifference over the years to our's, & other parents reports of Bullying, Threats & Assaults eventually led to a violent 4 on 1 Criminal Assault leaving our son with his nose broken in 3 places, a deviated septum, 95% of his sinuses caved in & only 5% breathing capacity...requiring a three hour corrective surgery...Inman's Shocking Response in violation of numerous Georgia Laws & APS Policies: "this really wasn't that bad, just a little bloody nose...your son is too quiet...too reserved...I don't even know who his dorky little friends are...he needs an exit strategy..." - Principal Herrema's shocking response over the years "...I can't guarantee your son's...or anyone's safety while thay are at school" - No Incident Report or Police Report submitted, No Reporting of the Crime to the District Attorney, Destruction of Surveillance Tapes, No Disciplinary Action taken against the 4 Assailants, No Follow Up Plan to insure no further Threats. APS School Board response...Nothing. If your kids have also been Bullied, Threatened or Assaulted at Inman, we would like to hear from you & share our's & other parent's experiences with a view towards making Inman a Safe School. Please contact us at jdelba7821@aol.com or 404 861-0194.

"this really wasn't that bad, just a little bloody nose...your son is too quiet...too reserved...I don't even know who his dorky little friends are...he needs an exit strategy..." - Principal Herrema's shocking response over the years "...I can't guarantee your son's...or anyone's safety while thay are at school"

The boy could have been killed!!!!!

They could have murdered your son?!?!?!??!?!?! That is horrific!!! Are those kids gone from the school now? Arrested?

How is YOUR son doing? Is he back at school? I cant imagine how horrible that is for your family.

Dear Family of Four,
Yes, per the Surgeon's Report, our son did come the proverbial "that close to being killed" at Inman. With Inman Administration & the highest levels of APS yet to take or implement any complete, specific tangible & lasting corrective action, or comply with Georgia Law or APS Policy. NO ONE, from Inman Administration / APS has EVER bothered to directly interview our son relative to the details of the vicious 4-on-1 Criminal Assault, which ocurred on campus in the 4th quarter of 2012 while the kids were left unsupervised; with Inman Administration telling us to "drop it" (recorded) & again, treating all facets of the attack & not directly reponding to us with the same consistent casual indefference; with Principal Herrema telling us that she "cannot guarantee our son's safety at school" (recorded). Thanks for your follow up, please contact us directly at jdelba7821@aol.com -or- give us a call at (404) 861-0194 and we will be happy to share our Inman experiences - the Surgeon's Report, Inman emails, Inman audio recording from when we finally met with Adminisrtation, & Inman "security procedures in action" video - you will find them all to be somewhat beyond infuriating, maddening and alarming - more importantly, what we have learned from the process - stuff any parent would want to know. Our son is healing & we will be pressing charges this week as both Inman & the highest levels of APS have refused to do so.
SIncerely,

Jeff & Jennifer Del Bagno