What kind of journalism is this? It is simply a recitation of an attorney's claims. "The claim says ..." Nothing else is reported. There is no mention of even an _attempt_ to get information from anyone other than the attorney filing the claims.

Palo Alto Online should exercise its editorial judgment when given a set of unverified, unchallenged claims from an attorney going after the deep pockets of our schools and city governments -- claims that are masquerading as a news story.
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Poorly behaved students that have no respect for authority. Ambulance chaser Burris as usual.

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It’s so ridiculous to see some comments from individuals that have ZERO facts. They expect children. Let alone minorities to live in a world where civil right and now federal and state rights are violated.

You have a corrupt system whereby police and a distraction of menlo atherton will be proven in court have lied, violated right. So tax payers pay for what others would be fired or face criminal charges. Before you write a comment have some common sense to find out facts. Children matter not a system where you pay for people who need to be terminated for unjustified actions.

It is tough to comment without knowing the facts, and the article does not provide enough perspective.

Based on my experience, I bet school staff and administration have been instructed to remain silent, so you won't hear much from those sources. Same goes for the Atherton police officers present that day.

In addition, now that the young man’s family is litigating, it is probably best for them to remain quiet for now. Anything said can be taken out of context or turned against them.

It seems like misfortune on many fronts. School staff and administration are continually being asked to do more with less, and thus exposed to more risk. Overextension in a difficult environment can lead to short fuses and rash responses at times. Surely more de-escalation training is needed, but funding is sparse, and often the training is inadequate.

Those who are not cops will never truly understand how difficult the job can be at times. That said, based on the video, it seems as if the officers could have taken a different tact. Maybe something to the effect of, "Hey son, we are going to step back here and talk to some of the kids nearby to see what they witnessed. This officer will just stay close to make sure you are okay. We would like you to take a deep breath, gather yourself, and get home safely". Give the kid some space and time to cool off but stay close enough in case he chose to harm himself or others. Maybe that was not possible given the proximity to a busy street.

If the young man and others with similar circumstances were subjected to "An adverse learning environment for minority children with special needs in the Sequoia Union High School District", the responsibility for that ends at the district level. I would hate to see personnel at MA fall on the sword to cover for inadequate staffing, training, and evaluation of the STARS program.

Let's hope some positive change can come from this unfortunate incident. It is clearly needed.