Delegates at the Florida PTA's annual convention in Jacksonville voted on Saturday, calling for stun guns to be used "only" as an alternative to shooting a student with a gun and urging lawmakers to further study the device's effect on people.

"I'd rather have a child Tasered than shot," said Duval County delegate Doug Stovall.

What? Like those are the only two choices that Florida educators have to maintain order and discipline?

I disagree with this for a couple of reasons. First, it provides officials with a brutal and yet (generally) non-fatal method for enforcing discipline as they see fit. If the only alternatives they have available are deadly force or temporary electrocution, then they need to be replaced with educators who are more intelligent and imaginative. A taser is just too easy. It provides a quick way to incapacitate students that is, as I said, (generally) non-fatal. For that reason, it will not be the LAST resort, it will be the preferred quick-and-easy method for maintaining order.

Second, the effects of stun guns are still being studied. I have no problem with stun gun usage in general—they ARE (generally) non-fatal, after all. I would be in favor of replacing police pistols with stun guns (although they could still keep rifles in the trunk for long-distance needs). But stunning schoolchildren into submission just rubs me wrong. Surely, even in Florida, the need for such severe measures are the exception and not the rule.

Find another non-fatal method for maintaining discipline, please.