By M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com
A police officer working as a school resource officer in northern Mississippi twice stunned the mother of a middle school pupil with a Taser during a heated argument at the school Wednesday morning.
 M. Alex Johnson is a reporter for msnbc.com. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. |
The woman — identified as Michele Lee Eaton, 39, of Saltillo, about 15 miles north of Tupelo — was arrested on disorderly conduct, public profanity and other charges, NBC station WTVA of Tupelo reported.
Read the full story on WTVA.com
Lee County School Superintendent Jimmy Weeks said Eaton became upset and began to use profanity in the front office at Guntown Middle School, where she had gone to dispute an disciplinary matter involving her child.
Weeks wouldn't specify what the child had done or what punishment was meted out, but he told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that it didn't involve corporal punishment.
Weeks said administrators asked Eaton to calm down but that she continued to get louder.
When the school resource officer — a Guntown police officer who is certified to use a Taser — asked her to calm down, she stormed out of the office, followed by the officer, who told her he was placing her under arrest, Weeks said.
When she didn't stop, he used the Taser while they were on the walkway outside the building. When that didn't subdue her, he used it again.
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Guntown Police Chief Michael Hall said Eaton was charged with disorderly conduct, public profanity, resisting arrest and failure to comply with a law enforcement officer. She refused medical treatment and was taken to the Lee County jail, where she posted bail.
Guntown is the town where authorities rescued two kidnapped Tennessee girls earlier this month in a case that drew national attention. Authorities said Adam Mayes, 35, killed Jo Ann Bain and her daughter Adrienne, 14, on April 27 in Whiteville, Tenn., then fled with her two youngest daughters, Alexandria, 12, and Kyliyah, 8.
The girls were found safe on May 3 after Mayes shot himself to death as police closed in on his hideout in the woods near Guntown. Mayes' wife, Teresa Mayes, is charged with murder in the killings.
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