Ohio officer suspended after using Taser to wake up student

A school resource officer in Ohio has been suspended after activating a Taser and using the sound of arcing electricity to wake up a sleeping high-school student.

Police told an ABC affiliate in Cleveland that the department suspended Officer Maryssa Boskoski, 32, who works part-time at Liberty Preparatory School in Smithville, a town of about 1,200 residents located south of Cleveland.

“She did take her Taser, remove the cartridge from it, and arced the Taser,” Smithville Police Chief Howard Funk said, adding officials had had met with the town’s solicitor to determine if Boskoski should face charges.

The student was not touched by the Taser at any time, and no injuries were reported. Still, the school’s principal, who was present for the incident, said that it violated the school’s taser policy and alarmed people in the room.

{mosads}”I was a little surprised by it. Our interest is in the safety of our students so hearing that go off was a little alarming,” interim school principal Jenna Parnell told News 5 in Cleveland.

Funk added that he was upset with the officer’s conduct. According to performance logs obtained by News 5, it was the officer’s second incident involving misuse of a taser this year.

Earlier this year, Boskoski was said to have improperly deployed a Taser in close proximity to another officer when she failed to remove a cartridge from the device before conducting a spark test. At the time, she was warned that further misuse could result in disciplinary action, News 5 reported.

The news outlet said that it was unable to reach the officer for comment.

“It’s unfortunate and I’m disappointed that this took place. It’s something I would not have expected from any of our officers,” Funk said.

Police in nearby Cincinatti said last month that they would investigate an incident in which an officer used a Taser on an 11-year-old girl who was accused of shoplifting. Video of that incident was released Thursday as the officer involved faces a disciplinary hearing.