The state's education commissioner should ban the use of Tasers, pepper spray, and other "less-than-lethal" weapons in all public schools, according to a request delivered this week from the ACLU and six other civil rights groups.
The groups have mounted a campaign to ban Tasers and other weapons from schools, citing a November incident in which an Austin area student was shocked by a deputy responding to a fight in the hall, the Houston Chronicle reports.
Noe De Rivera, 17, who in surveillance tape appears to have been backing away from officers, was stunned and fell to the floor, hitting his head. The teenager was in a medically-induced coma for 52 days, and his family says he has suffered brain damage.
