"By the time police arrived, young Aidan was in a full-blown meltdown. He had ripped molding from the wall and tossed chairs and a TV cart around the classroom. He had grabbed a stick and chased his teachers into the office, where they locked themselves in."
I'm sorry, but this made me LOL hardcore. Truly, two adult teachers, ran from an 8 year old with a stick...REALLY? Besides the obvious, which is that two adults should easily be able to overpower an 8 year old with a non lethal object, where the hell did a kid in a school like that get an object that could potentially be turned into a weapon? Someone was not careful, watchful, or doing their job correctly to allow a potential weapon to fall into the hands of an unstable kid. However, despite someone's mistake, there is no excuse for running away from a kid with a stick, no matter how unstable he is. As someone who has both worked with children for years as well as taught martial arts to the them, a pissy 8 year old is still not strong enough to overpower a frightened adult.
As for the cops pepper spraying him, how else would one respond to an emergency call of an unstable child with a weapon (apparently scary enough to frighten the teachers)? It was as non lethal as it could be.
" Doctors and therapists have evaluated the boy, she said, and can find no cause for his periodic outbursts. ?They all say there?s nothing mentally wrong with him.? "
This speaks volumes about both the parent and the kid, clearly there is some assumption that the kid believes he can get away with doing as he pleases at school, as there is nothing mentally wrong with the kid. The mother should be better at disciplining her son and making clear that just because its school, he cannot do as he pleases. This also begs the question as to why he's in a program for children who are unstable, a place where acting out may be more tolerated, as opposed to a traditional school setting. One where this kind of behavior is looked down upon.
TL;DR: The teachers are pansies for running away from an 8 year old, the cops did what they had to in a questionable situation that was presented as dangerous. The mother is incompetent as hell, and clearly has no grasp on fixing her sons issues.