Your tax dollars put shock gloves on cops patrolling school hallways, and nobody told you. Omaha police this week agreed to stop carrying gloves that deliver electric shocks to students after the Associated Press revealed the practice — but only in Nebraska's largest district. Suburban departments and three other metro districts are keeping them.
The devices, called G.L.O.V.E.s (Generated Low Output Voltage Emitters), were originally tied to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement plan to equip officers with the shock gear, which has also been used in jails. That's the company your schools keep: ICE and inmates. Omaha Superintendent Matthew Ray asked school resource officers to stop carrying the gloves, and Omaha Police agreed. Bellevue police, which patrols two Omaha schools and its own large district, said its officers will keep using them. Three other districts with Omaha SROs in their buildings have taken no action, according to the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot.
Ray told the school board Monday he only learned about the gloves the prior week. That's either incompetence or a lie. Local TV station KETV dug up emails from 2023 showing Omaha police notified the districts they planned to equip officers with the gloves, and a district official admitted they already knew because Bellevue police had been carrying them at two Omaha schools. Parents were never informed. School boards never voted. The people who are supposed to be in charge found out when the press did.
Omaha police demonstrated the gloves at a news conference to show how they help officers "quickly get control of someone who is refusing commands" — framing children as compliance problems to be jolted into submission. Omaha police used the gloves twice during the 2025-2026 school year. Bellevue police used them twice in previous years.
At last week's school board meeting, roughly 30 people spoke against the gloves. Nobody spoke in favor. "I can't even imagine walking down the hallway and seeing a peer of mine being electrocuted in a place that is supposed to be a safe space for students," said Nora Wessel, a senior at Omaha Central High School. Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, warned that before schools allow such technology, there must be discussion about how officers will respond to students with disabilities or special medical needs, and under what circumstances the gloves can be used. "Less than lethal doesn't mean low risk," Trump said.
Ray said continued use of the gloves "would be counterproductive to our work together." That's bureaucrat-speak for: it looks bad now that the public knows. The Bellevue department's defiance tells you everything about who runs these buildings — and it isn't parents.
The question isn't whether one district backed down under pressure. It's how many districts across the country are quietly letting cops zap kids with gear designed for jails and immigration enforcement — and how long administrators will keep pretending they didn't know.
