Moms try to get electric shock gloves out of their kids’ schools

California has banned them. Army experts trying them experienced so much pain they were “apprehensive” about further tests and were swapped for new personnel. In Nebraska, mothers are fighting to get the same electric shock gloves out of schools.

The devices have opened a new front in the national debate over force in schools: whether police assigned to protect students should be allowed to carry this tool that delivers an electric shock to gain compliance.

“The kids there are scared,” Katy Eilers said of Millard North High School in Omaha where her 16-year-old son is a student. “He’s scared he’s going to get shocked. He’s scared one of his friends is going to get shocked.”

Parents in Omaha complained when they found out this summer that the same shock gloves ordered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a controversial move were already on the hands of their school resource officers. It’s now known officers have used the devices at least five times on students across the city, including a middle-schooler in an integrated program for children with special needs, since 2022.

Omaha Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Ray said he had been unaware that police officers assigned to his schools were using the devices — and with the support of the mayor he banned them in August this year. But in the separate school district of the suburb of Millard, the leadership wanted to keep them.

“They tried to shut down comments about it,” said Rachel Murphy, the mother of a seventh-grader and a new high school graduate who complained during a school board meeting in September.

“They basically said, ‘I know some of you are interested in talking about this. Here’s our stance: We’re keeping them.’ And then they moved on,” she told CNN.

Millard Superintendent John Schwartz declined to speak with CNN about the devices, which cause pain when touched to bare skin by completing an electrical circuit and delivering a shock.

Schwartz would only say that “we’ve already made comments,” before directing CNN to a public statement, which read, in part: “In evaluating whether to dictate that officers not carry these devices, we carefully considered what the real-world consequences could be. It became clear that removing this tool would take away a lower-impact option for officers if use of force is necessary to protect health and safety. Doing so could inadvertently place students, staff, and officers at a greater risk of injury.”

The device known as the G.L.O.V.E. — for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter — is produced by a Kentucky firm, Compliant Technologies. Its maximum shock is 380 volts, the company says, much less than a Taser. The user manual recommends the G.L.O.V.E. not be used on “small children.” Founder and CEO Jeff Niklaus declined to speak with CNN, but in a video Q&A posted last month he said the devices were “safe and effective.” “Our products are tested for 35 pounds and up,” he added. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show average American 11-year-olds weigh more than 75 pounds.

John Stuck, a law enforcement veteran who now trains personnel in use of force, said the G.L.O.V.E. is a useful addition to other tools carried by school resource officers, like batons, tasers, tear gas, and firearms. Users and trainers of shock gloves say they get immediate compliance and leave no marks.

“We have a high success rate and a low injury rate,” Stuck told CNN while demonstrating the equipment at Complete Tactical Consultants in Omaha. Stuck, who is also a captain in the Bellevue Police Department, said he would expect parents and the public to welcome a tool he views as less harmful than other options carried by officers.

Bellevue Police Department has had the devices for more than four years and refused to stop their use when asked by the Omaha schools superintendent. It provides resource officers to two schools in Omaha and those in Bellevue. Police Chief Ken Clary said in a statement, “I am not comfortable having our officers give up a tool that has repeatedly proven to be safe, effective, and less harmful than the alternatives.” A police spokesperson said students have been shocked three times — in January and April of 2023, and January 2025, All the events happened at Bellevue East High School after students resisted an officer’s command, the spokesperson said.

In Omaha, the first use was in January 2026. An incident report from South High School said an OPD school resource officer shocked a student who was fighting with an administrator and a security guard noted that the student’s mother “had no issues with the level of force used.” The second use was in May, when a middle schooler in the Integrated Learning Program was taken to an intervention room by a security guard and the school resource officer. Reports from the school and police said the student threw a chair at the officers and punched the security guard in the head.

Stuck said he’d heard from school systems that the shock gloves can have a deterrent effect too once students have seen them used.

“We get kids that once that school resource officer has put the gloves on, or they see that the gloves are on, they immediately comply without even touching them or doing anything. Which again, that’s a complete success for us,” he said.

Omaha approved a nearly $66,000 contract to buy 40 pairs of the G.L.O.V.E.s in June 2025. The police department said 29 of its 34 school resource officers had been trained to use them.

Officer Jason Cvitanov of Omaha Police said in a news conference on August 14 this year the G.L.O.V.E. devices were bought specifically for use in schools.

“The chief’s objective was to utilize them in schools, so we had another option available outside of taser, the impact weapon, or OC (chemical irritant) or actual physical force, and to give this some time to run, see how it went,” he said.

The shock gloves are designed to get a person to follow instructions, whether they are violent or simply non-compliant, according to the manufacturer.

That makes some parents worry about how children with their developing brains or special needs could be affected.

“When you’re autistic, sometimes you can’t articulate what you’re doing, and you just freeze,” said Eilers, who is especially concerned because her son has a heart defect. “I’m terrified that they’re going to shock my son, and he’s going to go into a fatal arrhythmia and die. Yeah, genuinely.”

Another mom, Jenna King, added, “My son is biracial. He is also neurodivergent. That is terrifying to know that he could have one bad day, and be shocked, and I have no control over whether they’re in the school or not.”

Murphy added: “We need to learn how to communicate and resolve our issues, and the way to teach a child to do that is not to shock them into compliance.”

The three mothers who spoke with CNN are upset that there had been no communication about the use of GLOVEs in Millard Public Schools until after the uproar and action taken in neighboring Omaha.

“When my son was going to this school, we got a letter when they got a drug dog,” Eilers said. “To find out that these were like in the schools for half of last year, and the teachers weren’t informed, I wasn’t informed, is honestly terrifying to me.”

The use of shock gloves and the lack of communication have strained relationships between law enforcement and the community, according to Sherman Wells, a longtime neighborhood activist and liaison with city officials.

“I was surprised we were having that conversation in 2026,” he told CNN. “What are we talking about? Shocking children! I can agree if they were using them in prisons to break up prison fights or traffic stops, but children, it just don’t seem like it’s real to me that we are having that conversation.”

Wells and Millard parents have vowed to keep pushing the district to change its policies. Three of the six seats on the Millard school board are up for election in November.

“All we can do is keep speaking with the parents and hope that when it’s time for election, we can get that superintendent (Schwartz) out of there,” Wells said.

加州已经禁用这些手套。试用这些手套的陆军专家疼痛难忍，对进一步测试感到“担忧”，并被替换了。在内布拉斯加州，一些母亲正在努力争取让学校停止使用同样的电击手套。

这些设备在全国范围内关于学校武力使用问题的辩论中开辟了一个新的战场：是否应该允许负责保护学生的警察携带这种通过电击来迫使学生服从的工具。

“那里的孩子们都很害怕，”凯蒂·艾勒斯谈到她16岁的儿子就读的奥马哈米勒德北高中时说。“他害怕自己会被电击，也害怕他的朋友会被电击。”

今年夏天，奥马哈的家长们发现，美国移民和海关执法局（ICE）此前备受争议地订购的同款电击手套，竟然已经配发给了学校的警务人员，他们对此表示强烈不满。据悉，自2022年以来，这些警务人员至少五次在全市范围内对学生使用了这种设备，其中包括一名就读于特殊教育融合项目的中学生。

奥马哈公立学校总监马修·雷表示，他此前并不知晓派驻到他辖区学校的警员正在使用这些设备——在市长的支持下，他于今年8月禁止了这些设备。但在郊区米勒德的另一个学区，校方领导却希望保留这些设备。

“他们试图阻止人们对此发表评论，”瑞秋·墨菲说道，她的孩子有一名七年级学生和一名新高中毕业生，她在九月份的一次学校董事会会议上提出了投诉。

她告诉 CNN：“他们基本上是说，‘我知道你们有些人想谈谈这件事。我们的立场是：我们会保留他们。’然后他们就继续讨论其他事情了。”

米勒德学区总监约翰·施瓦茨拒绝就这些设备接受 CNN 的采访。这些设备通过闭合电路并释放电击，接触裸露的皮肤时会造成疼痛。

施瓦茨只表示“我们已经发表过评论”，然后让CNN查阅一份公开声明，声明部分内容如下：“在评估是否强制要求警员不携带这些设备时，我们仔细考虑了可能产生的实际后果。很明显，如果为了保护公众健康和安全而必须使用武力，那么移除这一工具将使警员失去一种影响较小的选择。这样做可能会无意中增加学生、教职员工和警员受伤的风险。”

这款名为GLOVE（低输出电压发射器）的设备由肯塔基州一家名为Compliant Technologies的公司生产。该公司称，其最大电压为380伏，远低于泰瑟枪。用户手册建议不要在“幼儿”身上使用GLOVE。创始人兼首席执行官杰夫·尼克劳斯拒绝接受CNN的采访，但在上个月发布的一段视频问答中，他表示这些设备“安全有效”。他还补充道：“我们的产品经过测试，适用于体重35磅及以上的人群。”美国疾病控制与预防中心的数据显示，美国11岁儿童的平均体重超过75磅。

约翰·斯图克是一位经验丰富的执法人员，目前负责训练警员使用武力。他表示，这款电击手套是对学校警员携带的其他工具（例如警棍、电击枪、催泪瓦斯和枪支）的有效补充。电击手套的使用者和训练人员都表示，使用后能立即获得服从，且不会留下任何痕迹。

“我们的成功率很高，受伤率很低，”斯图克在奥马哈的Complete Tactical Consultants公司向CNN演示这套装备时说道。斯图克同时也是贝尔维尤警察局的一名警长，他表示，他相信家长和公众会欢迎这种他认为比警员使用的其他装备危害更小的工具。

贝尔维尤警察局使用这些设备已有四年多，尽管奥马哈学区总监要求停止使用，但该局仍拒绝。贝尔维尤警察局为奥马哈的两所学校和贝尔维尤的学校配备了警务人员。警察局长肯·克拉里在一份声明中表示：“我不希望我们的警员放弃这种已被反复证明安全、有效且比其他替代方案危害更小的工具。”一位警方发言人称，学生曾三次遭到电击——分别在2023年1月和4月以及2025年1月。发言人表示，所有事件都发生在贝尔维尤东高中，起因是学生拒捕。

在奥马哈，首次使用警用电击枪是在2026年1月。南高中的一份事件报告显示，一名奥马哈警察局的学校警员对一名与学校管理人员发生冲突的学生使用了电击枪，一名保安记录显示，该学生的母亲“对警员使用的武力程度没有异议”。第二次使用警用电击枪是在5月份，当时一名参加融合学习项目的初中生被一名保安和学校警员带到一间干预室。学校和警方的报告显示，该学生向警员扔了一把椅子，并击打了保安的头部。

斯塔克表示，他从学校系统了解到，一旦学生看到电击手套的使用，它们也能起到威慑作用。

他说：“我们发现，一旦学校警务人员戴上手套，或者孩子们看到警务人员戴着手套，他们就会立即服从，甚至不会去碰手套或做任何事。这对我们来说，就是巨大的成功。”

奥马哈市于 2025 年 6 月批准了一份价值近 66,000 美元的合同，用于购买 40 双 GLOVE 手套。该警察局表示，其 34 名学校资源警官中有 29 人已接受过使用这些手套的培训。

奥马哈警察局警官杰森·西维塔诺夫在今年 8 月 14 日的新闻发布会上表示，购买 GLOVE 设备是专门用于学校的。

“局长的目标是在学校里使用这些武器，这样我们就有了除了电击枪、冲击武器、OC（化学刺激剂）或实际武力之外的另一种选择，并给它一些时间运行，看看效果如何，”他说。

据制造商称，电击手套的设计目的是让人们服从指令，无论这些指令是暴力的还是仅仅是不服从的。

这让一些家长担心，对于大脑正在发育或有特殊需要的孩子来说，这可能会产生怎样的影响。

“自闭症患者有时无法清楚地表达自己的行为，整个人都会僵住不动，”艾勒斯说道。她尤其担心，因为她的儿子患有先天性心脏病。“我害怕他们会电击我的儿子，导致他发生致命的心律失常而死亡。真的，我非常害怕。”

另一位母亲詹娜·金补充道：“我的儿子是混血儿，而且患有神经多样性。想到他可能哪天情绪不好，受到惊吓，而我却无能为力，无法控制他是否能去上学，这让我感到非常害怕。”

墨菲补充道：“我们需要学习如何沟通和解决问题，而教孩子做到这一点的方法不是用电击迫使他们顺从。”

接受 CNN 采访的三位母亲感到不满的是，在邻近的奥马哈发生骚乱并采取行动之前，米勒德公立学校一直没有就手套的使用问题进行任何沟通。

“我儿子在这所学校上学的时候，我们收到过一封信，说学校引进了缉毒犬，”艾勒斯说。“得知这些缉毒犬去年半年都在学校里，老师们毫不知情，我也毫不知情，这真的让我感到很害怕。”

长期担任社区活动家和市政府官员联络人的谢尔曼·威尔斯表示，使用电击手套和缺乏沟通加剧了执法部门与社区之间的紧张关系。

“我很惊讶我们竟然在2026年还在讨论这个问题，”他告诉CNN。“我们到底在讨论什么？电击儿童！如果是在监狱里用电击枪来制止狱中斗殴或交通违章，我还能理解，但用在儿童身上，我觉得我们居然在讨论这个问题，实在太不真实了。”

威尔斯和米勒德的家长们誓言将继续敦促学区改变政策。米勒德学区委员会的六个席位中有三个将在11月进行选举。

“我们所能做的就是继续与家长们沟通，希望在选举的时候，我们能够把那位校长（施瓦茨）赶下台，”威尔斯说。