Mom Sues Sheriff’s Office After Autistic Son Allegedly Tasered

A mom is suing the Caddo Parish Sheriff's office after her non-verbal autistic son was allegedly tasered and left lying in a pool of his own urine. The suit claims that the Sheriff's office violated the boy's civil rights under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

According to the Shreveport Times, the 10th grader attended a program at Northwood High School for children with severe and profound autism. The Sheriff's Department provides school resource officers to the school.

On August 31st of 2017, the boy allegedly began showing stressed behavior and wandering the hallways. The suit claims that his teacher was not present when he left the classroom. As part of the child's behavior in stressful situations, he rubs his belly on walls and drinks lots of water. During the child's episode, he also wandered in and out of different classrooms.

School officials and a deputy made a semi-circle around the boy in an attempt to keep him from wandering around and when he tried to break free, that's when the deputy allegedly tasered the child and left him laying unconscious in a pool of his own urine. According to the Times' account of the encounter, the child was left lying in his own urine until his mother arrived at the school to deescalate the situation, which was roughly 13 minutes.

There is also allegedly video of the entire encounter between the boy, school officials and the deputy. The lawsuit also alleges that the deputies patrolling schools had little to no training on how to handle individuals with disabilities.

The Caddo Sheriff's department has yet to formally respond to the suit.