Police Pepper Spray An 8 Year Old

I know this sounds horrible, but hear me out. The 8 year old who got pepper sprayed even admitted:

In an interview Monday, the boy said he "kinda deserved it."

See, he kinda deserved it. Obviously there's some controversy about this. I mean they did pepper spray an 8 year old. I don't have kids, but pepper spray? However, the school district's superintendent is defending the actions of the officers:

"He was violent, he was verbal, he was abusive. The police were very thoughtful and thorough about the actions that they took."

It seems the boy has long suffered from mental and behavioral problems and is now in a school more suited for him. Not sure if it's pepper spray-free though?

What do you think? Did they go too far? What would you have done?

VIA Consumerist.com Photo Credit: Flickr, freefotouk