Police handcuff Ga. kindergartner for tantrum

[Jolie Rouge]

A 6-year-old from Georgia was handcuffed and put in a jail cell after police say her tantrum injured those around her. Is this ok?
Apr 17, 2012 12:25 PM [/I]

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. - Police in Georgia handcuffed a kindergartner after the girl threw a tantrum and the police chief defended the action.

The girl's family demanded Tuesday that this central Georgia city change policy so that other children aren't treated the same way. They say the child was shaken up by being put in a cell at the police station.

Salecia Johnson, 6, was accused of tearing items off the walls and throwing furniture in an outburst Friday at Creekside Elementary School, Macon television station WMAZ-TV reported. Police said the girl knocked over a shelf that injured the principal.

The school called police. The police report says when an officer tried to calm the child in the principal's office, she resisted and was handcuffed. The girl was charged with simple assault and damage to property.

Police Chief Dray Swicord says the department's policy is to handcuff people in certain situations. "Our policy states that any detainee transported to our station in a patrol vehicle is to be handcuffed in the back and there is no age discrimination on that rule," Milledgeville Police Chief Dray Swicord told WMAZ.

The girl's aunt, Candace Ruff, went with the child's mother to pick her up from the police station. She said Salecia was by herself in a holding cell and complained about the handcuffs. "She said they were really tight. She said they really hurt her wrists," Ruff told the Associated Press. "She was so shaken up when we went there to pick her up."

Officials at Creekside Elementary did not immediately return calls Tuesday. "We would not like to see this happen to another child, because it's horrifying. It's devastating," Ruff said.

Information from: WMAZ-TV, http://www.wmaz.com/

http://www.wbrz.com/news/police-handcuff-ga-kindergartner-for-tantrum/

http://news.yahoo.com/police-handcuff-ga-kindergartner-tantrum-112459850.html


If the child was that far out of control... then maybe she - and her mother and aunt - need a reality check. If she can not be "handled" at 6 - what do they think will happen at 16 ? She was placed in a cell by herself - the ultimate "time-out" and the handcuffs would not have tightened in the fashion described if she had not continued to fight and pull at them once they were in place.

comments

My mother would have spanked me into next week.....and if she told my father about it...well, lets just say my sister would have suddenly become an only child.

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The girl was "shaken up?"

What about everyone in the classroom including the teacher that had to witness this h:o:r:s:e:s:h:i:t behavior?

Were they "shaken up" too?

Good Lord.

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When my granddaughter was in grade school she was a real handful. When her mother decided enough was enough and she was going to use the paddle on her, my granddaughter informed her she was told in school that if her mother hit her she could call the cops on the mother. My daughter called the cops and told them they had better get to her house cause she was about to show her daughter who was the parent. The cop came to the house, sit on a chair and said, "ok, have at it". She got a real lesson that day and never was a problem afterward

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Now, we'll see if the parents consider this a "teaching moment," or if they lawyer up.

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The behavior that child exhibited happens often in schools all over. Parents send their "out of control" kids to school and expect school personnel who have hundreds of kids in their care to deal with the socially unacceptable behaviors of seriously distrubed kids.

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Of course they will demonize the school and law enforcement in this and turn it into a spectacle instead of concentrating on the real issue which undoubtably is parenting.

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When parents defend bad behaviour is it any wonder thet kids think they have an entitlement not to behave well. My Dad would have said hey keep him for a couple of days and when I did get home give my backside a good whooping.

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Teach your children to respect others and their property and this kind of situation would not take place! It's called parenting...

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That child needs to be taught another way of handling anger...Per her mother.."Just mood swings"...The school couldn't get in contact with the parents...what is the school to do? Let her injure someone else....something tells me that this has not been the only time Princess Mood Swing has had a meltdown. Mom and Dad need to have her checked out for something more than mood swings...

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I can't imagine how "horrifying" and " devastating" it was for this little hellion's classmates to witness such an outburst in the classroom. The other children have a right to be sent to school without having to fear for their safely b/c this child is unstable. If at 6 she has no respect for law enforcement, then imagine what she'll be like at 16! Well, after 11 years of teaching high school, I've seen what it's like and it ain't pretty!

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Good. It's probably the first time she's ever been told "no".

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My guess is this is the first time anyone's bothered to discipline this girl, and that's the only reason why it was traumatic. From what I've read, she deserved it. It's not like they tasered her or hurt her. They simply stopped her from doing the actions that were causing others physical harm, something the parents should have taught her long ago. I doubt those handcuffs were tight unless all her baby-fat resides in her wrists. So she's a bit mentally shook up...big deal. Maybe she'll learn how to behave herself.

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How long before Al and Jesse show up?

[pepperpot]

Too bad the police don't do this more often, then there'd be less need for them. Deter them at an early age.

But yes, it is the parent's job not the police's, but when the parent fails........what else can be done?

[janelle]

Geez, most kids fall to the ground and flail around when they throw a tantrum. This kid must get away with breaking furniture and anything else in her vicinity.

When my grandchild hit me just once I put him in time-out in his playpen and scolded him good. He threw his stuffed animals out and screamed and cried but he never hit me again. Oh, he got mad and I saw his hand go up but he controlled himself and did not hit me.

You either use things as a teaching moment or let the kid go wild.

[3lilpigs]

Apparently her ''time outs'' and sitting in her room playing computer games and watching tv as punishment.........DON'T WORK.

(note the heavy sarcasm)



My mother would have spanked me into next week.....and if she told my father about it...well, lets just say my sister would have suddenly become an only child.

LOL...same here!

[justme23]

Good Lord. Of course the police did what they had to do. My father was a beater so I'd never do something like that. But my mother was a normal parent and I still would have expected not to be able to sit for a few days...she would have been so embarrassed by my behavior she probably would have done it right there in the police station!

[Jolie Rouge]

Handcuffing the 6-Year-Old May Have Been the Only Answer
By Susan Graybeal Yahoo! Contributor Network – Tue, Apr 17, 2012

According to the Associated Press, a police chief in Georgia is defending the actions of his officers, who recently removed a 6-year-old child from school in handcuffs and placed her alone in a holding cell until her mother could pick her up. My initial reaction was to wonder why someone would need to handcuff a 6-year-old. After a bit of thought, I've come to believe maybe it is the only thing the officers could do.

The article states the child, a kindergartner at Creekside Elementary School in Macon, threw a tantrum that included tearing items off the wall and knocking a shelf over that injured the principal. Suffice to say, it sounds as though this wasn't a simple matter that timeout or being sent to the principal's office would correct. It sounds more like a behavioral issue the parents and school were likely aware of before this incident even occurred.

The school is not allowed to restrain a child under those circumstances. And a tantrum like that can't just "play itself out" at the expense of the other kids in the class and the destruction of property that was taking place. I do have questions as to why the mother wasn't called to the school to control her child, but for whatever reason, it was the police that were called instead.

According to the article, the police are required to handcuff individuals when they are transported in a patrol vehicle, regardless of age. That makes sense generally, to protect the safety of the individual and the officers also riding in the vehicle. Given that this child had already torn things off of walls and pulled down a shelf, it makes sense in this particular case too, regardless of the child being only six years old.

The family of the child is saying that the child was complaining about the handcuffs being too tight and that this is a horrifying and devastating thing to happen to a child. I agree, it is horrifying and devastating. But, considering the description of the story, I don't really see that the officers had any other option.

http://news.yahoo.com/handcuffing-6-old-may-only-answer-214800731.html

comments

Instead of these "parents" making excuses for their child's behavior they might be better served trying to understand their failure in raising her. By 6 years of age any child who has had proper 'bringing up' knows that this type of behavior is not acceptable. If my kids had done that I guarantee you their next stop would have been over my knee.

I'm also guessing here that the parents (who obviously knew about their daughter's problems) had probably refused to work with the school in the past - I seriously doubt this is the first time their little darling has acted up in class.

I hope the parents and the child get the counseling and help that they need ... but I'm not placing any bets on that happening unfortunately.

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I would take this a step further and ask for a psychiatric exam for the 6yr old, consequently, someone from child services should pay the parents a visit to see what kind of environment they are raising a child in ......Parenting and discipline go hand in hand.....which these parents don't seem to have any clue...

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Would you want your five year old kindergarten child to be around this girl while she hurled desks and large toys at everyone, bit everything in sight and tried breaking out glass? For the safety of the other children, she needed to be restrained and handcuffs do that job. She was not hit or disciplined in any way, just restrained. Now she needs to be expelled or sent to a juvenile detention center. Sad but true. Mom and Dad have failed you.

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As I've said before...there is aboslutely something wrong for a 6-year-old kid to have an emotional meltdown like that. That is...I wonder what the parents had done....or didn't do...that caused this. Either way, the school was already in a no-win situation.

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I agree they had to handcuff the child. I have seen "tantrums" thrown by children at my kids' schools, and some of them are violent and out of control. I've seen kids assault their teachers, grab school supplies to use as weapons, and use every curse word ever uttered. The school is relatively powerless to stop it, for fear of being sued, or their employees fired. The police did what their policies dictate, restrained the child, and took her to a location where she was safe and others were safe from her. It's upsetting, it's embarrasing, but frankly, I don't see what other options they had.

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Totally appropriate response, given the existing statutes and particular circumstances. Additional benefit is the message sent to other potential misbehaving children.

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What bothered me the most about this case is that the parents don't think she did anything wrong other than it was a "bad mood" day for her. This kid is crying out for boundaries and discipline. This kind of behavior should not be tolerated, she needs to be taught that there are consequences for bad behavior and the parents really need some parenting classes.

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A child who is raised properly and taught what is acceptable conduct would not act out like this. This wild child did not stop her tantrum in front of the teacher or principal. She did not stop when the police showed up. What NORMAL 6 y/o would do that around adult authority figures?

[Jolie Rouge]

Police arrest 6-year-old who threatens, kicks principal
By Susan Guyett | Reuters – 1 hr 47 mins ago

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Police in a small Indiana town hauled a six-year-old from his elementary school and charged him with battery and intimidation after he kicked and threatened a principal, police said on Wednesday.

The incident followed one earlier in April where police handcuffed a 6-year-old girl who was screaming and crying and had injured a principal and damaged property at an elementary school in Milledgeville, Georgia. She was not charged.

The Indiana student, who had been suspended from school recently for biting and hitting a staff member, was arrested April 18 at Hendricks Elementary School in Shelbyville, which is about 30 miles southeast of Indianapolis. "This was not an isolated incident," Shelbyville Police Lieutenant Michael Turner said.

School officials called police, reporting that the student, who was not identified, had kicked Principal Patrick Lumbley and told him and Assistant Principal Jessica Poe that he was going to kill them, a Shelbyville police report said. The student was yelling and screaming and lying on the floor of Poe's office when police arrived, the report said.

Poe led the student to a police car where an officer placed him in the back seat, buckled him in and drove him to the police department, the report said. He was not handcuffed. Turner said he hoped the filing of juvenile charges would help get the child needed help. "Putting him into the system can open up avenues perhaps the parents don't have," Turner said

http://news.yahoo.com/police-arrest-6-old-threatens-kicks-principal-192228840.html

comments

This is a learned response and action. I am sure the parents are quite similr to the child in handlng angst. Nice going guys!!!!

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The cause could be almost anything. Bad parenting, abusive parenting, no parenting, spoiled kid, reactive to bad principal, bad teacher, bi-polar kid. Who knows until they get the kid assessed and dig a little deeper.

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If the parents taught their childen how to behave and be respectful we wouldn't see articles like this. The parents are solely to blame...no one wants their child disciplined today so here is the result....calling the police and having them arrested is better than dealing with the child only to have an angry parent to have to deal with also!

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This is why parents need to monitor their children's television viewing. This little copycat was doing his/her own version of what went on in Milledgeville last week. That story received entirely too much news exposure and you could see it in the way that little idiot played so comfortably in front of the camera.

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What parents? First of all is the questionable parenting skills, and home situation. This child has no respect for grown-ups. This is taught at home, before a child goes to school. Don't just charge the 6 yr. Old, charge the parents, and get their attention !

[justme23]

I don't have kids and I would never assume to know the answer.... but, what if there IS some psychological reason these children are acting this way? What if the parents are doing every thing they can and do not have the financial means to get them to the right doctors?

I hope it's not just bad parenting... although, I have seen first hand how a child who is not disciplined acts... which happens to be the same as these kids described... she was never disciplined until it got so bad that the "parent" resorted to spankings *I* would call beatings. The parent said it was because the child would not be still and so she got hit where she got hit... I find that disturbing beyond belief and really believe, even though she's not a child any more and no one can control her now, that if she had been given limits... ever... that she would not be anything like she is now... but she has also been diagnosed bipolar and I do think that contributed a great bit along w/ her lack of discipline, structure or stability.

[Jolie Rouge]

I don't have kids and I would never assume to know the answer.... but, what if there IS some psychological reason these children are acting this way? What if the parents are doing every thing they can and do not have the financial means to get them to the right doctors?

In the case of the second child - that is exactly what the Asst Principle said ... that this might open up avenues to identify the issues and get the child some help. In the case of the first child .. the school reportedly called the parent repeatedly to come and get the child and once they did establish contact the parent refused to come to the school.

[Jolie Rouge]

Kindergartner Charged with Battery. Why Are We Criminalizing Kids?
By Piper Weiss, Shine Staff | Parenting – 22 hours ago

When a six-year-old boy kicked his school principal last week, the school called in police, not parents. The student had already been suspended for kicking and biting another official, when he allegedly threatened a teacher and kicked Principal Pat Lumbley. This time, the child was placed in police custody and charged with battery and intimidation. "In the big picture ... I have to look at school safety and have to look at student safety," Lumbley, an Indiana elementary school administrator, told a local Fox affiliate. The county's police lieutenant defended the decision, adding "putting him into the system can open up avenues perhaps the parents don't have."

But can the penal system really help a troubled kindergartner?

Increasingly, precincts have become de facto detention centers. In Albuquerque alone 90,000 students, were arrested between 2009-2010. In Texas, an estimated 300,000 kids were give misdemeanors in 2010. That number includes children as young as 6. "You've gradually seen this morphing from schools taking care of their own environments to the police and security personnel, and all of a sudden it just became more and more that we were relying on law enforcement to control everyday behavior," Austin-based juvenile court judge Jeanne Meurer told The Guardian in an investigative report on the policing of children in America. The British newspaper's in-depth article was published in January, four months before a Georgia 6-year-old was carted out of her kindergarten classroom in handcuffs after allegedly throwing a caustic tantrum.

Handcuffs, really? "There is no age discrimination on that rule," a Georgia police chief told local news. The child's parents have started a petition in an effort to change that.

Over the past year, kids under the age of 13 have been arrested, or threatened with arrest, for giving wedgies, having a food fight and spraying perfume. In more serious circumstances, children are facing real prison time over hockey game fouls and threatening classroom notes. One 6-year-old was accused of sexual assault by school officials during a recess game of tag. In order to have the sexual battery charge wiped from his school record, the child's parents had to hire a lawyer to prove that the charges had no legal basis. "Everyone suffers when adults don't have the skills and support to manage unsafe or respectful behavior such as kicking and tantrums effectively," Irene van der Zande, executive director and founder of Kidpower, tells Shine. Her California-based non-profit program helps schools and parents teach kids safety, respect and tolerance independent of police intervention.

But many school officials feel law enforcement is the only place to turn for help. The rapid increase in school shootings since the Columbine tragedy has left administrators scrambling for better safety measures. Overcrowding, financial cutbacks and access to weapons in the information age are all conditions of new generation and a system struggling to adapt to it. As a result a higher percentage of students between the ages of 12 and 18, say they're more afraid of attack or harm at school than away from school, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In 2010, 85 percent of public schools cited incidents of violence, theft, and other criminal activity. That same year, 60 percent of schools called in police for backup.

Advocates of school policing believe crackdowns send a message to the student body, and help keep large underage populations in check and safe. Principal Lumbley feels he protected the rest of his elementary school's student body by having a 6-year-old student arrested. But critics say those punitive measures are really designed to protect teachers. "Teachers rely on the police to enforce discipline," Kady Simpkins, a juvenile defense lawyer, told The Guardian. "Part of it is that they're not accountable. They're not going to get into trouble for it. The parent can't come in and yell at them. They say: it's not us, it's the police."

The hard-line approach isn't only happening in schools. Recently, TSA officials subjected a frightened, crying 4-year-old girl to a pat-down after she ran through Kansas airport security to hug her grandmother. While the family understood the reasoning behind tightened security measures, they didn't feel the understanding was reciprocated. "There was no common sense and there was no compassion," the child's grandmother Lori Croft told the Associated Press. The little girl hadn't yet learned about terrorism, but had been briefed on the concept of "stranger danger."

"To her, someone was trying to kidnap her or harm her in some way," Croft explained to the AP.

As for the Indiana 6-year-old student charged with battery and intimidation, it's hard to believe he's any wiser. "I can't imagine the prosecution being able to sustain a battery charge against a six year old," a New York Family Law Attorney, who chose to remain anonymous, tells Shine. "There is a 'mens rea' or 'state of mind' element to all crimes and I can't imagine a prosecutor being able to successfully argue that a six-year-old could meet the state of mind requirement for battery or any crime for that matter."

That's not to say that kids with severe behavioral problems should be dealt with the same way as other students, but child advocates believe that criminalizing their actions doesn't solve any problems. "Kids who have trouble behaving well in school can almost always be turned around with preparation, firm, respectful interventions, and a plan of action that gets school officials and parents working together as a team," Kidpower's van der Zande tells Shine. "When adults overreact, the harm done is not only to the child involved but also to other children who witness this."

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/kindergartener-charged-battery-why-criminalizing-kids-175600847.html

[Jolie Rouge]

comments

kicked my first grade teacher and stormed out and went home. My mother was waiting and marched me back to school beating my butt every step of the way. No cops, no arrests. Lesson learned.

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The reason the kids are getting arrested is because public school employees are in a lose-lose situation. If they restrain the kids themselves, you can bet the parents will file a lawsuit against the school district and the administrator or teacher personally blaming them for the kid's bruises and nightmares because "NOBODY HAS A RIGHT TO TOUCH MY KID!" Involve the police, and all you get is a few unfavorable news articles

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Back in the day children were taught to respect their elders. ALL of their elders. I was well past 18 before I started calling other adults by anything other than Mr. Mrs. or Ms. We knew that if we disrespected our teacher, our principal, our friends' parents or even the old neighbor down the street we would be punished at home. Today it seems that kids don't learn to respect their parents much less any other adult or person. I worked taking pictures at a box store portrait studio and had kids trying to hit me and kick me and one 9 year old even called me the b-word. Very, very rarely did the parents intervene. However, if I tried to instill any discipline in my studio the parents got upset with me, not their bratty children. THAT is the problem. Its not the police, its not the schools, its not that people don't like kids. Its that many people these days never learned any discipline and don't know how to teach it to their children. I feel bad for the kids, but to me, if a child is out of control at a young age there is only one place to put the blame. On the parents. Parents need to teach their children discipline and respect and not expect society to do it for them. It may take a village ... but good behavior starts at home.

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By removing the authority of schools to discipline errant children they are left with little choice in how to deal with these little darlings. We are reaping what we have sewn.

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Do ya reckon today's society will ever come to the fact that pills and time outs don't work when it comes to disciplining children?

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The schools do not have the power or support to handle discipline in any meaningful way. Parents have created this situation with pointless law suits, failure to parent, and not only a lack of support for the school but an out right opposition to the schools. Schools are responding to the environement created by the failures of parents that they are forced to serve.

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The real problem is the parents who let little "susie" do as she will at home and at the playground and mall, and then when shes in school she doesnt want to follow the rules, she wants to be treated like a princess, school should no longer be a free commodity, did you know school budgets are so inflated due to busing only? every year they spend hundreds of millions of dollars on busing alone! so when you see your schools budget and say "how come my kids aint learning nothing!" see that about 80% of that budget is spent on buses alone! if parents dont care neither should the government!

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Why are we criminalizing it? Because we've stripped schools and teachers of the ability to discipline bad behavior and because society celebrates it. Previous generations didn't have to deal with this on a regular basis. And it's not because we knew we'd get our butts kicked into the next zip code (although that was part of it). It's because we were taught respect, manners and morals.

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The reason the schools call the cops is this The parents obviously failures as parents do nothing to the kid because dear god you can not discipline a child that is criminal in itself. and two if the school tries to discipline the child the same lazy parents would be up in arms and yelling every thing they could about abuse, bullying, picking on, discrimination for skin color poverty level religous beliefs etc. Till the school had to cough up a fat paycheck to the lazy parents and then an educator gets fired and labeled as any of the insults that would apply to whatever type of discrimination was thrown out.

Hell yeah call the cops put the little turds in jail and send Mommy and Daddy a nice fat bill for the kids arrest. Something has to be done to teach kids that they can not act any way they want there are rules to follow even if Mommy and Daddy do not enforce any of them.

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I really blame the parents of these kids. Back in my day, you did not talk back, use foul language or, *gasp* even attempt to hit an adult. Parents disciplined their kids and, if that meant a good spanking (and, I'm talking, go find the switch, in which you would receive your punishment), then, so be it. Nowadays, this is considered "abuse" (while there are bad apples that do take this to extremes); I personally, think we've gotten too soft and friendly with our children. Give them some electronic device and let that be their "parent" and when they pitch a fit about anything, just give it to them and shut them up. . .Instant gratification. No consequences, no discipline and, this is the outcome. . .Unruly, undisciplined, spoiled children.

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Have you been in a school lately ? I volunteer at some local high schools. These kids are like a bunch of wild animals. Apparently there is absolutely NO discipline at home and they think that school teachers, officials, etc. have NO right to tell them what to do. Little John or Mary is ADHD or Autistic or ODD or some such...well, actually a lot of it is just B-A-D parenting. Thank you Ms. Clinton for your "it takes a village" approach to raising children...it makes it so much easier to excuse the parents who want the schools, etc. to do their job of teaching their children civility and respect for others. Schools are there to teach reading, math, science...not behavior ! If your child is a wild animal that is your fault and by all means call in the police !!!!