Police handcuff Ga. kindergartner for tantrum
By MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Police in Georgia handcuffed a kindergartner with her arms behind her back after the girl threw a tantrum and the police chief defended the action as a safety measure.
The girl's family demanded Tuesday that their central Georgia city change policy so that other children aren't treated the same way. They say the child was shaken up by the ordeal.
Officials at Creekside Elementary did not immediately return calls Tuesday.
I'd say the child was TRAUMATIZED by the ordeal. I'd say further that her civil rights were violated. I'd say further that it is a case of racial prejudice because such treatment would NEVER be used if dealing with a 6-year old white girl. I'd say that this child has suffered serious emotional damages, and that those responsible (the teacher, the principal, the police officer, the police chief, the mayor, the civilian head of the police board, etc, ALL share to some degree the responsibility for rendering this miscarriage of injustice right - and somebody gots to pay some puni's!).
While it's unusual to see a young child handcuffed in school, it's not unheard of. School officials around the nation have wrestled with the issue of when it's appropriate to call police on a student.
Me thinks perhaps the police ought to give some guidance as to when they ought to be called by schools. Typically, when an police are called, the police officer in charge feels compelled to do SOMETHING ... CLEARLY, the school wanted the police to do SOMETHING, and of the things the school may or may not have tried to do, keeping the child in school was NO LONGER AN OPTION (or the police would NOT have been called).
Salecia Johnson, 6, was accused of tearing items off the walls and throwing books and toys in an outburst Friday at Creekside Elementary School in Milledgeville, according to a police report.
Police said a small shelf thrown by the child struck the principal in the leg during the fracas. The child also jumped on a paper shredder and tried to break a glass frame, the police report states.
The part about the principal getting hit in the leg after the child threw a small shelf was added after I read my morning edition of the Herald. WHY DID THE CHILD THROW THE SMALL SHELF AT THE PRINCIPAL? WHAT WAS THE PRINCIPAL DOING IN THE CLASS ROOM IN THE FIRST PLACE?
The school called police. When an officer tried to calm the child in the principal's office, she resisted, police say. She "was restrained by placing her hands behind her back and handcuffed," a police report states.
This is literally PRICELESS ... "Well, child, let me try to calm you!" For just how LONG did the officer try to calm the child? Was the officer a male or a female officer? Is there a video of the officer's attempts to "calm the child?" Such a video would be very useful for further situations when someone tries to "calm a child." Are there any mental health professionals or child psychologists or nurses attached to the school? Wouldn't the training of a mental health professional, child psychologist, or student nurse be more appropriate if indeed, the calming of the child was the issue, rather than the "calming techniques" of a police officer? Can you imagine a WORSE possible profession to call into a situation to "calm a child" (especially a black child whose experiences with police, even anecdotal experiences are certain to be all negative)? Was the cop white? Was the cop a male? Was the cop big (bigger than a 6-year old, I am betting)?
A juvenile complaint was filed, accusing the girl of simple battery and damage to property.
You bet a complaint was filed. Without a complaint, they have NO justification for their actions. SIMPLE BATTERY? Better check the Georgia Statutes on Simple Battery
The police department's policy is to handcuff people when they are taken to the police station, regardless of their age, interim Police Chief Dray Swicord said. He said the child was restrained with steel cuffs, the only kind the department uses.
Memo to Barney Fife: You really might want to reconsider that "regardless of age" policy, and, when you say PEOPLE ARE TAKEN TO THE POLICE STATION - you mean people who are accused of crimes are taken to the police station. Nice work with the steel cuffs too, plastic being as expensive as it is these days. Oh my God in Heaven, can an ACLU law suit be far behind?
"The reason we handcuff detainees is for the safety of themselves as well as the officer," he said Tuesday.
Dumbest fucking utterance ever. Do you mean to tell me, that when I ride in the back seat of an automobile, I need to be handcuffed for my own safety because it is safer being handcuffed in the back of an automobile than not being handcuffed?
The girl's aunt, Candace Ruff, went with the child's mother to pick her up from the police station. She said Salecia had been in a holding cell and complained about the handcuffs.
Ah, them holding cells! What memories they hold for ME!
"She said they were really tight. She said they really hurt her wrists," Ruff said. "She was so shaken up when we went there to pick her up."
Of course they're tight, little darlin', we want to teach you a lesson about pain avoidance. Be a nicely behaved little brat child, and we won't have to handcuff you in the back seat of a police car ever again, EXCEPT, that now, because you have a record as a known dangerous person who batters principals (pretty lame fuck head principal, I might add, too) and destructs property, we are going to have to come in a heart beat each and every time from here on out that we get a call on you, and you WILL be presumed guilty! WE PROMISE YOU THIS! And as you grow up and bigger and older, WE WILL NEVER FORGET HOW DANGEROUS YOU WERE, AS YOUNG AS SIX!
The police chief said the girl was taken to the police department's squad room, not a holding cell, and officers there tried to calm her and gave her a Coke.
Were the officers there any more successful at calming her than the coke? Or more successful than the officer who tried to calm her at kindergarten? Were there ANY female officers there to calm her? Any BLACK FEMALE officers there to attempt to calm her. Why are we not told if she was calmable? If these officers were better trained than the officer that failed to calm her at the school, and thus was "forced" by his own professional training and experience, to handcuff a little child of God in metal hand cuffs, and put her in the back of the police car, why was not one of these (hopefully) better-trained-at-calming-down cops sent initially? And does anybody have a tape recording of the telephone call that came in from the grade school to the police station? Did it go something like:
"Wild uncontrollable child on the rampage. Has battered principal's leg. Has damaged property. We are unable to calm and subdue her. BRING TASERS. DANGER! DANGER!Deadly black bitchbeloved Child of God (with or without previous anger issues? on of off medication? living with birth-mother or other relative? possible victim of child sexual or physical abuse?) on the loose. Help us! We are terrified! Worthless piece of shit teacher, teachers, principal, that is for God Damned Sure! Fire the lot of them!
Of course not. They are in damage control mode, probably hiring some expensive lawyer to tell them how to spin the corporate response.
The girl was suspended and can't return to school until August, her mother, Constance Ruff, told WMAZ-TV, which first reported the story.
How to make the problem disappear. I think her suspension should be challenged in court (and I suspect it will be!)
"We would not like to see this happen to another child, because it's horrifying. It's devastating," her aunt told The Associated Press.
This is the only response that reaches any level of common sense and human decency. Every other person quoted comes off sounding like a major league ass hole, in one way or another (indifference to the horrors inflicted upon a child most assuredly qualify one for major league ass holedness).
Milledgeville is about 90 miles southeast of Atlanta.
Elsewhere in the U.S., incidents involving students, police and handcuffs have raised difficult questions for educators, parents and policymakers.
Like the real issue it raises is: Jesus Fucking Christ, this makes us look like child abusers! (Yes it does. Yes you are. Woman is assuredly "nigger of the world," but there is NO cohort with fewer rights, and more subject to abuse than CHILDREN. VERY few people stand up for children (and some of the ones who do are the most profligate of child abusers; sigh this is way of the world; sigh; deliver us from Evil, Dear Lord). AMEN.
In Florida, the use of police in schools came up several years ago when officers arrested a kindergartner who threw a tantrum during a jelly bean-counting contest. Since then, the overall number of student arrests in Florida has declined, but those for minor offenses have increased on a percentage basis. A bill was proposed this year to restrict police from arresting kids for misdemeanors or other acts that do not pose serious safety threats.
Good God in Heaven, it's come to this: we need to pass legislation restricting police from arresting kids for misdemeanors or other acts that do not pose serious safety threats. One would like to THINK (although one assuredly knows better than to think it) that anyone being paid money to carry a gun and to SERVE AND PROTECT the citizens of a community would realize that (a) Children ARE citizens of the community, and (b) Children have virtually NO advocates watching out for them, and (c) Children commit more crimes than adults - mostly of a petty nature.
Annette Montano, a mother in Albuquerque, N.M., said her 13-year-old son was arrested last year after burping in gym class. After more problems, she said, she pulled him from the school in November. It took her three months to get him placed elsewhere.
Let THIS serve as a warning out there
to all you serial burpists!
Officials at Creekside Elementary did not immediately return calls Tuesday.
