Six year old handcuffed at school and taken to the police station

Krynn72

Krynn72

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http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2...fter-allegedly-throwing-tantrum-and-furniture
The family of a 6-year-old Georgia girl is upset at police and school officials after the girl was handcuffed and taken to a police station for allegedly throwing furniture, tearing items off the walls and knocking over a shelf, which injured the principal.
...
"Our policy states that any detainee transported to our station in a patrol vehicle is to be handcuffed in the back. There is no age discrimination on that rule," Milledgeville Police Chief Dray Swicord told WMAZ-TV.
The family on Tuesday demanded that the city change its policy, the Associated Press reported, and claimed the girl was shaken up while at the police station.
The police officer called to the school later wrote that he "noticed damage to school property and possible assault of other students and staff. I made six attempts to contact her mother via telephone."
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The real reason I'm posting this thread though is because of this sentence.
Johnson was observed biting the door knob of the office
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Because I read it three times and swore it said "biting the door knob of the officer". Its only now that I pasted it in here and read it a fourth time that I see its lacking the last letter.

Anyways, how does one actually handle a kid like this? I've always wondered, since I dont know how to do it. Like, a kid who just wont quit throwing shit at people and breaking expensive stuff and trying to run away, and who just wont ****ing chill out. Is it okay to physically restrain them? Or do you have to just let them destroy shit and hurt people out of fear of hurting the kid? What if they're biting your door knob? Can you hit them to get them off? Please answer seriously, its only a matter of time before my friends start having kids and force me to interact with these sorts of gremlins.
 
"6 yr old handcuffed."

I knew it was a black kid. Always dem blax.
 
It is absolutely ok to restrain a child if he/she becomes a potential harm to others. Just make sure as **** you have a witness there. The police were totally within their rights to put the kid in handcuffs. She was a potential threat; age should not matter.

If she did this in a mental hospital, she would have been put in restraints. But, in this scenario, the civil liberties of the child would have been forfeited by the parents. That's definitely not the case in public schools, so the police tried several times to contact the parents. When they couldn't be reached, and the child still remained as an on-going harm to other students and staff, they were forced to handcuff her.

I see absolutely no problem with their actions.
 
"She has mood swings some days, which all of us have mood swings some days," she told WMAZ-TV. "I guess that was just one of her bad days."
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Yeah... cuff the brat.
 
She sounded pretty out of control, I think restraining her was a good option.
 
wooferton McWoofybites said:
Anyways, how does one actually handle a kid like this?
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Whenever any of my little cousins get out of line and start acting like that, I always just tell them to cut it out or i'll whoop their ass.

Normally they get the picture after that, but whenever one of them tries to press the matter even further, a modest little punch on the shoulder is usually enough to remind them that you are in fact bigger than them, and could probably kill them with your bare hands if you wanted.
 
sixteenth said:
It is absolutely ok to restrain a child if he/she becomes a potential harm to others. Just make sure as **** you have a witness there. The police were totally within their rights to put the kid in handcuffs. She was a potential threat; age should not matter.
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This. Especially the witness part. No witness, and youre ****ed
 
In Ireland, school policy dictates that you're not supposed to restrain a child or even really touch them. However, sometimes it's necessary because the child is a danger to others. But by "restrain" we're not talking about handcuffs...we're talking about dragging the kid off whoever they're attacking and then letting them go. Yes, occasionally the police may be called, but usually it's just to sit someone down for a talk and give them a good scare. I've never heard of the police being called to physically restrain a child here before.

This handcuffs business is silly. I would be totally against that. It's very possible to control a 6 year old without handcuffs, and I would certainly say that it's not in the child's best interests to be subjected to that experience. It's not really going to help her behaviour long-term, and it would have been possible to deal with it in a less traumatic way. The school should either be trying to help her be a normal person, or else taking legitimate steps to expel her or relocate her to a school more suited to her needs, not just giving up and treating her like a criminal.
 
sixteenth said:
It is absolutely ok to restrain a child if he/she becomes a potential harm to others. Just make sure as **** you have a witness there. The police were totally within their rights to put the kid in handcuffs. She was a potential threat; age should not matter.

If she did this in a mental hospital, she would have been put in restraints. But, in this scenario, the civil liberties of the child would have been forfeited by the parents. That's definitely not the case in public schools, so the police tried several times to contact the parents. When they couldn't be reached, and the child still remained as an on-going harm to other students and staff, they were forced to handcuff her.

I see absolutely no problem with their actions.
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Well there's one thing you forgot. These are adults and this is A FREAKING 6 YEAR OLD. ****, if this was me in school, I would've been smacked in the head and told to get the **** over to time out. ****ING 6.
 
Dog-- said:
Well there's one thing you forgot. These are adults and this is A FREAKING 6 YEAR OLD. ****, if this was me in school, I would've been smacked in the head and told to get the **** over to time out. ****ING 6.
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Hey man, protocol is protocol. You don't know if that 6 year old has a gun, until you're lying on the floor with a bullethole in your skull!
 
KiplingsCat said:
It's not really going to help her behaviour long-term, and it would have been possible to deal with it in a less traumatic way.
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See, people always say this, but how do you deal with it in a better way given the fact that they wont stop smashing/attacking/escaping?
 
With discipline, positive reinforcement and other such methods.

Or else you choose not to immediately deal with it, let her trash the place while ensuring she doesn't harm herself or others (I mean come on it's a six year old what is she really going to achieve) and then deal with her when she has calmed down and is ready to hear you. Kids do this for the attention and to get a reaction. The best way to discourage them from doing it again is to show them that you are unfazed by their actions and to discipline them in a calm and undramatic way. They'll stop of their own accord when they see that their actions are not causing you to give them what you want.
 
I've seen the kind of damage a six year old can cause, so "let them tear your shit up" seems like a shitty way of handling it.
 
KiplingsCat said:
With discipline, positive reinforcement and other such methods.

Or else you choose not to immediately deal with it, let her trash the place while ensuring she doesn't harm herself or others (I mean come on it's a six year old what is she really going to achieve) and then deal with her when she has calmed down and is ready to hear you. Kids do this for the attention and to get a reaction. The best way to discourage them from doing it again is to show them that you are unfazed by their actions and to discipline them in a calm and undramatic way. They'll stop of their own accord when they see that their actions are not causing you to give them what you want.
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Sure. If, before the incident occurred, the child was clearly taught the actions of her consequences through some type of behavioral therapy, that would have worked. Unfortunately, she wasn't. So she had to be reprimanded. During an outburst of this kind, positive reinforcement will likely not work. The child will have to calm down by him/herself.

As for your other point... well, that wouldn't prevent another child or adult from getting hurt; it's actually allowing for that to happen. If it's a matter of physical harm, she needs to be restrained immediately after the parents have been spoken to (or if unreachable, right away). If, say, she wasn't determined to be a threat to other individuals and was just destroying state property, let her go ahead and do it. Bill the parents.
 
Krynn72 said:
I've seen the kind of damage a six year old can cause, so "let them tear your shit up" seems like a shitty way of handling it.
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Well, if it's your own kid, obviously restrain them all you want. But in a school, there are policies, you can't just go ahead and restrain them for the sake of protecting your stuff. Even in the event of someone being harmed, it's not really allowed. There's all kinds of health and safety laws. Now, common sense dictates that if you're being attacked or someone else is, then obviously you need to step in and stop it. Unless you really hurt the kid, you won't be called out on it. But calling the police and having the kid handcuffed is definitely not appropriate, and is probably in direct violation of some sort of child-protection law. If that happened here there'd be uproar.
 
Dog-- said:
Well there's one thing you forgot. These are adults and this is A FREAKING 6 YEAR OLD. ****, if this was me in school, I would've been smacked in the head and told to get the **** over to time out. ****ING 6.
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any teacher that did that would be immediately fired

and if the kid needed to be restrained by the cops due to behaviour at the time of the arrest then there's probably a very good chance that the kid has special needs issues. even then I've seen perpetually violent special needs kids and adults stop their behaviour as soon as they see a uniform; even they understand what it means

also, at the point where they're being a danger to themselves/others a therapeutic holding could be used to calm them down but that's in extreme cases. this just seemed like an overreaction by everyone involved. they should have removed her from the room and put them in a room where they cant do any damage like a gym or in a fenced off portion of a school yard
 
err dont piss me off mentally challenged people not krynn ....although ...................
 
KiplingsCat said:
Well, if it's your own kid, obviously restrain them all you want. But in a school, there are policies, you can't just go ahead and restrain them for the sake of protecting your stuff. Even in the event of someone being harmed, it's not really allowed. There's all kinds of health and safety laws. Now, common sense dictates that if you're being attacked or someone else is, then obviously you need to step in and stop it. Unless you really hurt the kid, you won't be called out on it. But calling the police and having the kid handcuffed is definitely not appropriate, and is probably in direct violation of some sort of child-protection law. If that happened here there'd be uproar.
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That's why they got the police though, right? The school could attract all kinds of lawsuits for trying to physically handle children, even disruptive ones. Rather than watch a kid destroy the school environment and potentially danger the child's self and others', they turned over to the police to handle it.

Now maybe the police handled it poorly with the cuffing business. It was pretty much the police's call on how to handle the situation when they got involved. But I can understand the school's want to pass the responsibility to another authority.
 
Totally understandable actions as far as I read. Better handcuffs than the inevitable child abuse charges if you try to restrain the kid purely by hand.
 
Absinthe said:
That's why they got the police though, right? The school could attract all kinds of lawsuits for trying to physically handle children, even disruptive ones. Rather than watch a kid destroy the school environment and potentially danger the child's self and others', they turned over to the police to handle it.

Now maybe the police handled it poorly with the cuffing business. It was pretty much the police's call on how to handle the situation when they got involved. But I can understand the school's want to pass the responsibility to another authority.
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I don't know what the rules are in the US. But here in Ireland, most schools will have a policy stating that a kid can't be taken off school grounds by anyone other than their parents, without parental consent. They don't have the authority to pass the kid over to another authority. The child's parents have entrusted their kid to them on the understanding that the kid is going to stay there, and be cared for by people that the parents have approved of. They're teachers, they need to deal with it. It's not ideal, but simply handing the authority to somebody else just wouldn't be considered an option here.

What does the school know about those policemen? They could be totally negligent, they could have absolutely no idea how to handle a six-year-old child (not being teachers, and usually having to deal with adults). It's completely irresponsible for a teacher to just allow a child to be taken away from the school like that. It would be totally against Ireland's child protection policies.

I refuse to believe for a second that these teachers couldn't have handled the situation themselves, given proper facilities and strategies. I mean, come on. It's a six-year-old, not the Hulk. I've known teachers to handle far far worse (and far bigger) without feeling the need for police intervention. And ultimately, teachers need to act in the best interests of the child. Was being handcuffed and taken away from the school by strangers in the child's best interest? Probably not. Was it a long-term solution to her behaviour? No. They had no business to do it.
 
KiplingsCat said:
I don't know what the rules are in the US. But here in Ireland, most schools will have a policy stating that a kid can't be taken off school grounds by anyone other than their parents, without parental consent. They don't have the authority to pass the kid over to another authority. The child's parents have entrusted their kid to them on the understanding that the kid is going to stay there, and be cared for by people that the parents have approved of. They're teachers, they need to deal with it. It's not ideal, but simply handing the authority to somebody else just wouldn't be considered an option here.

What does the school know about those policemen? They could be totally negligent, they could have absolutely no idea how to handle a six-year-old child (not being teachers, and usually having to deal with adults). It's completely irresponsible for a teacher to just allow a child to be taken away from the school like that. It would be totally against Ireland's child protection policies.

I refuse to believe for a second that these teachers couldn't have handled the situation themselves, given proper facilities and strategies. I mean, come on. It's a six-year-old, not the Hulk. I've known teachers to handle far far worse (and far bigger) without feeling the need for police intervention. And ultimately, teachers need to act in the best interests of the child. Was being handcuffed and taken away from the school by strangers in the child's best interest? Probably not. Was it a long-term solution to her behaviour? No. They had no business to do it.
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So, what if said 6 year old had sneaked a knife into the school, and had started slashing and stabbing the teachers? According to your own comments, it'd be quite alright to allow her to keep venting her rage until she calmed down, and still not allow the police to intervene as 'the school doesn't know who they are' without the parents say so.
Also, you obviously don't have a 6 year old kid. I have 6 year old twins and am fully aware of what they are capable of. They might not be 'the Hulk', but they can do a shit load of damage if left to it. And they know EXACTLY what they are doing. They've been to school. They have responsible parents. They have a knowledge of right and wrong. If one of mine did this at school I'd expect someone to deal with them. If the school couldn't, then I'd expect to police to step in.
All this talk of 'but they are only 6' is bullshit. It's because of PC crap like that that kids these days get away with so much, hence the rising shit state of the so called civilised world.
 
bobtheskull said:
So, what if said 6 year old had sneaked a knife into the school, and had started slashing and stabbing the teachers? According to your own comments, it'd be quite alright to allow her to keep venting her rage until she calmed down.
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Um...no. I don't know how you extrapolated that from my comments. A six-year-old with a weapon is different to an unarmed six-year-old. That's a completely different situation that should be dealt with differently.

However, it'd still be completely against policy here for police to restrain the child with handcuffs and take her away from the school. They might come, to give her a scare, but they would never, ever be allowed to take her away from the school, and would be highly reluctant (I'm not sure if they're even allowed) to physically restrain her with handcuffs. Like I said before, I don't know what kind of policy you have over there in the US, but this just wouldn't happen here. That's all.

Also, I appreciate that kids can wreck stuff. That's no reason to call the police on them, in my book. It's most likely that they're doing it for attention or to get a reaction. Making a big deal out of it like this wouldn't be helpful.
 
Kids have tantrums sure, but trashing a classroom is a different story altogether, she obviously has some deeper behavioral issues than just 'being upset'.
 
I mean, it sounds to me like she has some kind of special needs-type-thing and should be in a school which can cater for that. But that's up to her parents, I guess.
 
morgs said:
Kids have tantrums sure, but trashing a classroom is a different story altogether, she obviously has some deeper behavioral issues than just 'being upset'.
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How exactly are the cops going to help with that?
 
Well they can't, long term, but the problem she was making needed a quick solution. She obviously couldn't be verbally calmed, and no one at the school would have been able to grab her without consequence. Who ya gonna call?
 
Nice job by the police! Kids need to be dealt with in a manner that makes a firm statement so they remember it. You can't just let them do whatever they want, there has to be limits.

If I ever visit a kindergarten or an elementary school and it just so happens that one of those toothless little cretins tries to instigate disobedience or pull some infantile shit on me, I'd take them down without hesitation. I wouldn't beat them of course, because people get mad if you do that to kids. But I'd definitely call the cops and then restrain the instigators so they can be apprehended properly.
 
KiplingsCat said:
A six-year-old with a weapon is different to an unarmed six-year-old.
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So injuring someone by way of throwing, deliberately knocking over, or wielding furniture is classed as unarmed? Hold on a second while I go beat my neighbour with a book shelf.

I'm in Scotland, not the US, and we have a similar policy regarding kids not being touched. But if you look at our local, and even national news, every other week there are reports of kids attacking teachers. Why? Most of the time, because they feel like it. And they know they will get away with it. One of my friends is a Teacher. Loves the job, but hates going to work as there is no-one there to 'have his back' if any of the kids start lashing out. Teachers are told not to touch under any circumstances, even if they are being attacked.

I think what some people are forgetting here is that some kids don't care. They do it cos they want to. Not because they have special needs, or are looking for attention. There is a perfectly normal 7 year old lives not far from me. Her mother is a fairly competent parent and the child has had a good upbringing. Thing is, she's a nasty piece of work. She has actually threatened my missus before, simply cos she wanted our kids to go out and play and we told her they were doing homework. She has been known to kick the snot out of other kids for nothing, and has been caught hurling bricks at neighbours pets. So, what would you propose would work? Talking to her doesn't work. Her parents can't control her, despite their best efforts.

My youngest had a run in with a horrible kid who is almost 6, a little boy who is constantly being told off by his parents. He's been in trouble with the police too. At 5. His mother dragged him home by the arm one day and he screamed at her to F*** off. Then told her he was going to 'get her done' (means charged for abuse around here). He is a serious problem child from a really rough upbringing.

I used to stay next door to a special needs kid. She could throw rages just like the girl in that story. For no reason. She swore like a trooper, was incredibly violent and disrespectful. But half the time she didn't know she was doing it. Sometimes she knew exactly what she was doing.

That's 3 different kids, from different backgrounds, all doing the same thing. If you don't know the child, how do you deal with what you're facing? The same damn way. If you come in too heavy, fair enough, apologise afterwards. I'd rather that than get clocked with a brick cos I was trying to be nice about the situation and the little shit was determined to do damage.

Like someone else said, the sight of a uniform is usually enough to deter any young child, but if it doesn't, what are they supposed to do? The police don't know what they are capable of when they turn up, even if they are 'only 6'. If they keep up their behaviour, the only option is to restrain them, one way or another. The school, however, should. If the kids was special needs then they would more than likely not call the police. They did, so it's likely the school knew the disposition of the child where violence is concerned and dealt with it the only way they could.

I have kids, and I fully support what happened there. How many people here defending the girl have kids? My guess, not many.

Now that I've vented, I won't post on this thread again. I don't see any point in saying anything more. PC policies have got a lot to answer for.
 
KiplingsCat said:
With discipline, positive reinforcement and other such methods.

Or else you choose not to immediately deal with it, let her trash the place while ensuring she doesn't harm herself or others (I mean come on it's a six year old what is she really going to achieve) and then deal with her when she has calmed down and is ready to hear you. Kids do this for the attention and to get a reaction. The best way to discourage them from doing it again is to show them that you are unfazed by their actions and to discipline them in a calm and undramatic way. They'll stop of their own accord when they see that their actions are not causing you to give them what you want.
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See, that would require parenting, the cops cant fit all that in in the time it takes to **** up an office
 
I like a good cop bashing as much as the next person but this little girl sounds like a complete bitch. The act of handcuffing shouldn't encompass the political zeitgeist it currently has. This bitch needed to be restrained. Let's not pretend her civil liberties were encroached upon. I also bet her finger paintings sucked.
 
In this scenario, it sounds like the police just had a mandatory "handcuff anyone you take in a police vehicle" policy (and probably never foresaw having to pick up a 6-yr old girl), so I don't blame them too much on this one. Maybe they can revise their policy.

But, I would tend to agree with bobtheskull here. There was a kid in my class who was really big and prone to angry/violent behavior. When he was 10 or 11, he pushed another kid through a glass window in the lunch line. He didn't get cuffed since he was actually sane and probably didn't mean to break a window, but if he'd been out of control, he could've hurt more people than just that kid that went through the window. He ended up going to juvenile detention, and then he never came back for 5th grade :(. Anyways, I think there are some instances where cuffing kids could make sense.
 
KiplingsCat said:
Dude. She's six.
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I don't see how you can overlook what terrible shit a 6 year old is capable of. You have anger, energy, and a nearly blank mind full of playdoh and my little pony. It's like a mini wrecking ball with a dress.

I'm wondering if this would've been avoided if the cop had zip-ties.
 
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