COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah, Aug. 19, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — A juvenile who met with a counselor about returning to school allegedly ended up biting and choking the school resource officer and trying to take her gun, and was then tased by a parent who stepped in to help Thursday morning.
Cottonwood Heights Police Department Lt. Dan Bartlett told Gephardt Daily the incident occurred at Brighton High School at 2220 Bengal Blvd. at approximately 8 a.m., just as first period was getting underway.
“There’s a student that doesn’t attend Brighton but he wanted to attend Brighton and he was meeting with the counselor,” Bartlett said. “I take it didn’t go the way he wanted it to go and he was freaking out. They called the school resource officer down to help and so she was trying to get him out of the building, keep the distraction down, and he rushed her, started strangling her, trying to get her gun, biting her.”
Bartlett said the student also allegedly said he wanted to use the gun to hurt people at the school.
There was a group of parents in the building who were not related to the juvenile or the incident.
“They kind of jumped on him to help her keep him down, and she was kind of pinned down, couldn’t reach her tools,” Bartlett said. “So she asked one of the parents to grab her Taser and tase him, which he did.”
Bartlett added that police would not normally advise that course of action, but in this case, “she felt it was appropriate in the circumstance and it bought her the time to get the handcuffs on the kid.”
The school resource officer was taken to an area hospital, but is now recovering at home.
The juvenile was also taken to the hospital to be evaluated, which is standard if a person is tased, and has now been taken into custody.
Bartlett added police have a “very extensive history” with the juvenile, whose name will not be released. He will be facing a “slew of felonies,” Bartlett added.
The Canyons School District shared the following statement on the incident:
“Canyons District applauds the quick actions of the Cottonwood Heights Police, Brighton High employees, and parents who responded to an altercation with an adolescent on campus Thursday morning.
“We are grateful that those involved did not suffer serious injuries. While we are not releasing specifics about this isolated incident because of student privacy reasons, we want our community to know great measures are taken every day to keep our school campuses as safe as possible.”
The incident will be reviewed to see if it could have been handled differently or better, Bartlett said.
