I usually take a hard line on retribution and punishment for wrongdoing, and I rarely make excuses for people. But arresting and handcuffing a five-year-old child is beyond belief.
I tried to avoid this story, but it’s popping up everywhere now. I’m angry about it and hate what happened to this girl. I’ll admit my bias. I have a six-year-old niece, and the child in the video reminded me of her (the girl’s facial features, not her behavior). I almost started bawling when I saw her screaming and crying, “No!” as they pinned her arms behind her back. I blame her parents, overzealous lawyers, and our own unwillingness to say what is and isn’t acceptable behavior.
It’s almost sacrilegious to blame parents for their children’s behavior these days, but it’s the truth. The child’s father is likely absentee, and her mother probably works all day and rarely disciplines her, which is much more than whacking her on the behind. Discipline is also teaching, and it requires time and effort that many parents don’t bother to put in.
The child may have acted out this way before, and her mother and the school may have been aware of her behavioral problems. Keep in mind that she’s a child still learning right from wrong. All children need to experience the consequences of their actions, but hauling her off to jail should not have been an option. But it was. Why?
We live in a litigious society, and had the teacher done anything physical to restrain her, the parents would have sued the school. That must change. Schools should be allowed to administer a certain level of restraint, without civil liability, when children become a physical threat to others. I’m old enough to remember when principals paddled students. You had to be really bad to get sent to the principal’s office at the elementary school I attended, but if you were, you got paddled and sent home.
Those days are gone, thank goodness. The only people who should administer corporal punishment are the child’s parents. And believe me, my mother (and father a few times) administered plenty!
You can’t touch children that way anymore. But what do you do when they act out the way this child did? The teacher couldn’t let her run wild, knocking things over. She had to restrain her. This is what should have happened, in my opinion. Someone should have continued restraining the girl while her mother was called. NO COPS! If the mother couldn’t be reached or didn’t want to come, call the next number on the list. Good grief, call social services before you call the POLICE to arrest a child, for crying out loud!
People are just too afraid, too busy, too tired, too ignorant, too lazy or too slack to even try to raise decent human beings. And we wonder why America is going to hell in a handbasket.
Others blogging: lornkanaga, The Black Informant, Random and Politically Incorrect Thoughts…
Baldilocks makes MSNBC’s blog round-up with her post on the handcuffed kid. Related post.
I forgot to add this to the post earlier: Homeschool your kids!
Update (4/27): Samantha, who says she has a “special needs” kid, weighs in on the handcuffing. Also see the update.
Update II (10:46 a.m.): I’ll be on Jesse Peterson’s radio show at 11:30 a.m. to talk about this story.
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Physically restrain a student, lose your job.
Pity it is so, but it is.
Hmm…I think corporal punishment at school is fine. As long as it’s not beating the child. I got it, and as I recall I deserved it.
It also teaches the kids to respect the students (unless they are the few TRUE problem children who won’t learn no matter what)…
However, the five year old girl should NOT have been handcuffed. That was/is/shall ALWAYS be ridiculous in the extreme.
La Shawn:
Neal Boortz said that this mother had denied her little darling could misbehave, as reported in the past by her school. Therefore, the school videotaped the next encounter.
The teacher did not want to confront the NAACP, so she did the next best thing available to her - called the police. And the police followed policy.
Boortz said that, perhaps, saran wrap could be used to immobilize the child.
I disagree on letting teachers spank. If you don’t trust your child’s teachers to spank, perhaps you should find another school. If there ever was a place for vouchers, this is it.
If parents don’t want the teacher to spank their child, fine; but then they must make arrangements to come and discipline their child in school IMMEDIATELY wnen the school called.
Sorry, La Shawn, even though I know we have weirdos and perverts out there, we should have never gotten rid of corporal punishment — spare the rod… Part of the effect of being sent to the principal’s office is the humilation factor. That is a deterrent in of itself, tenderized rear-end notwithstanding.
Granted, even if we brought it back now, it would take some time for the effect to take hold. In any case, we’ve already lost another generation of messed-up kids who will be messed up in their adult life as well.
We also need to get rid of all the feel-good quackery that passes for child psychology. Kids are not “little people”, they are children who need to be shaped & molded.
In the meantime, we need to do is start holding parents criminally and financially responsible. In the case of this girl’s mom, she needs to make restitution on the damages caused by the child. As for assaulting, hitting teachers, we should be imposing fines.
As far as discipline goes, it sounds like this is a lost cause as well. I read an article yesterday where the reporter was at her home for an interview and it was noted that a girl was riding her bicyle in the living room and a son was swatting at the lights. All in all, a picture of general mayhem within the house.
This story makes me so angry. The Bible says that the parent who does not discipline his child actually hates his child.
I agree that the police should not have handcuffed this poor little girl, but I think both police and school officials were put in a no win situation by the child’s mother. According to reports, previous complaints about her behavior were ignored by the mother.
If her mother had been doing her job long before now, the situation would never have reached this point. It seems to me that just about every grown up in this child’s life has set her up for failure by not enforcing behavioral standards from the start.
I understand that she went on a rampage in the principal’s office just before the incident and tore things off the walls, climbed on top of the table and repeatedly tried to hit the adult who was weakly attempting to control her.
Some responsible adult should have come up behind her and wrapped her arms tightly around the child and sat down with her until she calmed down, but that’s probably illegal.
In my opinion, handcuffing a 5-yr old child who had assaulted another person is not ridiculous. As LaShawn has pointed out, due to the litigious nature of our society, due to the “don’t touch my child” policy of our society - this school was in a Catch-22. I believe a teacher/school administrator should have the authority (within reason) to exact physical discipline when a child has become unruly. Our society teaches us “don’t take matters in your own hands” contact the police. This school contacted the parent and the police - it appears to me they did what our society wants.
In fact, I hope the video will be broadcast tonite so that I can tape it and show it to my 5 & 6-yr old so they can see if you act out - you might catch a case.
No doubt in my mind that handcuffing a child should be considered way over the top. But as far as I am concerned the “front line” disciplinarians like teachers were “handcuffed” by parents, lawyers, and child psychologists way before this child was. I think the state should be able to fund public education but it should no longer be mandatory for any child to be educated to any level in the US. If the kid lacks discipline then he/she is out of the system until parents can assure the behavior has changed. If it takes 5 years for an eleven year old to straighten out and he/she only has the knowledge of a six year old then the eleven year old can start in first grade. Yeah, I realize there are big problems with this solution and it is more an emotional response than practical. But parents must be made to feel prime responsiblity for their child’s behavior.
I am against handcuffing a kid for disciplinary reasons. But the “front line” disciplinarians (teachers) were “handcuffed” way before this kid was. If the teachers were not, then they would not resort to these alternatives. But, hey, it’s easier to recoil at the over the top response than think about why it has evolved to this point. I guess it would point the finger at the parents and that is so uncomfortable.
I saw the videotape of the police, and one asked the little girl if she remembered him and how he had said to her, and her mother, that he would arrest her next time. It appears they were following through on some past episode when the mother was present. I get the impression the teachers had little other option as the mother would not come immediately, however I hate to see the police become threatening presences in this little girl’s life. Ideally, the police are our friends if we are law-abiding citizens.
I believe the teachers should have had the options of restraint and sending the child to speak with the principal who should have the option of corporal punishment. Schools today bear no resemblance to that of my day (born 1958). It is little wonder high school grads are predominantly woefully ignorant. I taught at the University of Virginia in the mid-1980s, and you would be amazed at the lack of basic knowledge and grammar I encountered among undergraduates.
La Shawn:
It is not only parents and overzealous lawyers who are to blame for the mess in our public schools. School administrators, politicians, and the media have become infected with a social engineering mentality in which all problems are caused by a lack of “tolerance” and “understanding” rather than bad behavior. The solution (according to them) is eliminate all rules, unleash a a vast army of social workers on the classrooms (the NEA’s version of “shock and awe”), and raise the tax rate to 110% to pay for the resulting chaos.
Why should we expect any solutions from the same education establishment that created the mess in the first place?
I think that everyone involved needs a visit from Super Nanny.
LaShawn: You are taking ‘em to church today.
I feel badly that the youngster was handcuffed, as no one needs to get another image of a black child in cuffs, but that child’s mother is failing her RIGHT NOW, by not instilling home training and values.
I saw the PAID (that’s right, PAID) interview with the mother on the Today Show this (courtesy of A Current Affair) and the minute she said “her baby was set up!” I realized the apple hadn’t fallen far fom the tree.
Be in prayer that this child can find decent role models and SOON.
This is simply more evidence of how the tools necessary to effectively discipline students in the classroom are no longer there. Consequences are a joke. It is likely that this child has been sent to the principal’s office before and has been counseled and not disciplined.
I get reminded by our deputy superintendent at all our major staff meetings: “Remember, please do not touch the kids.”
The students know that teachers are extremely limited in what they can do and that further encourages bad behavior.
Essentially, though, the discipline starts at home. Many of today’s parents tell their kids that they do not have to listen to their teachers, that they only have to listen to mom and dad. Even worse, many of those same parents are so selfishly involved in thier own drama that they forget to parent and try to slide by by being their friend.
Most of the problem students in schools learn their lessons on how to act at home. It puts educators like myself in a no win situation. We can’t do much, the kids no it, and the parents view teachers and administrators as the enemy.
This is the future of education. We’ll likely see more instances like this before there is any change.
A bad situatuon all around, and the school’s reaction a major reason why I am thinking of taking my child out of school and homeschooling. She is the same age. The major difference here, though, is that my daughter knows she is to treat her teacher and classmates with respect. If she doesn’t, she not only gets in trouble in school (such as it is), but catches hell at home that’s much worse. I believe dirty, physical labor like cleaning bathtubs and scrubbing baseboards cures most misbehaving this early.
I hope this child is disciplined and loved enough to not become a violent, whiny, “victim” of the system later.
I’m sorry for the kid. The child should have gotten a “butt whoppin’” several times before this incident.
It says in Proverbs (13:24/NIV) “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.” .
Aparently in today’s “secular” world the word of GOD means nothing anyway, and this is just an example of the results. I feel sorry for this world as we go further and further from GODS word.
I too hated to see the little girl placed in handcuffs. I also have a problem releasing my child to corpral punishment from our current public school teachers. I have been closely involved with public schools for the past several years. I AM NOT IMPRESSED!! I would question the rationality of several of the teachers I have been involved with.
Now; The lack of decipline this little girl displayed and her refusal to conform to the directions of the teachers is the same lack of culture and refinement that lets basketball players jump up into stands and fight other players and spectators. It all starts in the home, either the respectable or the hooliganism.
smokey l
The police might have put the girl in handcuffs for their own safety as well as hers. After all, she had been hitting the AVP–another adult. If she had been restrained only by an adult holding her tightly from behind, the little girl might have tried to bite, scratch, and/or kick the adult holding her.
Mom says her daughter is traumatized–what about her classmates? Didn’t she traumatize THEM with her out-of-control behavior?
La Shawn,
I might have seen more of the video than you. The girl was punching and kicking and standing on the teachers desk and punching and kicking and was carrying on. I wouldn’t relate her to your niece in any way.
However,
I agree with you that:
1) The cops shouldn’t have been called by the school
2) What are the cops (but between 20 and 40 year old law enforcement types)? You don’t send in the military or law enforcement to a kindergaten class. Or do you now?
3) Common sense didn’t rise up it’s head here. How was it that the 5 year old girl was able to cause so much commotion in the first place. If you have a ZERO tolerance policy for hitting, then the first or second hit that the girl made would’ve had the girl being brought to the principal’s office. In the video I saw the teacher did have to pick up the girl a few times and move her to a different location, so the teacher was able to pick her up (she could’ve brought her immediately not an hour later to the principle’s office).
4) There are some people that are using this incident as a) racism by the police b) racism by the white teacher c) evidence of racism period
While I agree that this is an ugly video all around, the cops should’ve never been called, the cops should’ve walked away, the teacher should’ve had a zero tolerance policy and brought the student in the principles office, ….
….the girl should be trained much differently than she has been by her parents.
I do not know anything that can be done but parenting experts step in and help the parents parent differently for this girl here on out. And they should be paid for by the parents.
My elderly aunt was an elementary schoolteacher for her entire working life. She says that she could not possibly teach in today’s schools, due to the bizarre rules and regulations. In her day, when a kid got out of line, she would give him or her an open-handed swat on the posterior, followed by a quiet lecture about how to avoid a repeat. She would also hug the kids whenever they did well. When I drive her around town on errands, or out to eat, we always encounter former students, all of whom seem to dearly love her. She offered both discipline and love, and kids respond well to that combination.
Today my aunt would be fired, arrested and sued for both the swats and the hugs. Sad, very sad, that society is unraveling at such a pace.
Maybe I should update the post for clarification. The girl looks a little like my niece, but my niece doesn’t behave that way. Heaven forbid.
The obvious answer, I agree, is the ability of schools to discipline in loco parentis. But the liberal world view has corroded authority such that the only permissible ‘touch’ remaining comes from the police.
She should be expelled or relegated to another system better able to invoke some pretty basic rules. In our culture, we’ll probably pay her ‘damages’ in the end, regardless of the damage she and her mother have inflicted on the 30 or so classmates deprived of an education while she has a tantrum.
La Shawn,
what I find most frustrating in this situation is that virtually everybody posting here sees the basic problem here with school, parents, and sagging standards of behavior; everyone has pretty good suggestions for what is needed; why is it that, with this broad and deep understanding of the problem, I am confident that behavior and culture will continue to slide down?
Somewhat related:
In our politically correct public education system accountability is weighted heavily on teachers who (mostly) know how to do their jobs.
Unfortunately, it’s politically incorrect to call the parents out on the tremendous screw-up jobs they do on their kids.
The politics behind discipline in the public school system are disgusting. The litigation factor is always on the minds of administrators. Even verbal disciplining has calmed in the past decade–I feel–so schools will be more immune to litigious parents.
I may be biased as a substitute teacher, but it’s not always the teachers’ faults all these kids are failing. It’s the parents who could care less who are screwing these kids out of a valuable education by not paying attention to their childrens’ needs.
I want to point out that cops handcuffing students is not new.
Granted the 1st time I heard of a “non-felony” student being handcuffed by cops was a few years and it was a high schooler. But since then there has been a number of students handcuffed, even from grade school for unruliness and to restrain them from further violence.
The cops are also in a no-win situation because the situation has escalated beyond the school’s ability to cope and they have passed of command & control to the police. Most cities do not have a policy designed for dealing with students, therefore when the police gets involved, it’s no longer a matter of academic PC but law enforcement PC.
As mentioned by most others, this is the unintended consequence of our “just do it” society where the sense of personal responsibility is mocked.
I’ll say it again, we’re watching a lost generation growing up here and the consequences is already ugly. SIGH!!
Everything goes back to the parents. School boards wouldn’t be able to institute these strange policies without support (tacit or otherwise) from parents (voters). And most unruly kids wouldn’t be out of control if they had proper discipline and love at home.
When I was in elementary school and acted up, the most dreaded thing the teacher could do was to call my parents. Once my folks got involved, I was in REAL trouble. And that’s how it should be.
Being good parents is perhaps the most important thing we can do for society’s benefit.
“I too hated to see the little girl placed in handcuffs. I also have a problem releasing my child to corpral punishment from our current public school teachers. I have been closely involved with public schools for the past several years. I AM NOT IMPRESSED!! I would question the rationality of several of the teachers I have been involved with.”
You hit the nail on the head, Smokey. I went to public schools for first through fourth grade. I went to Catholic schools from 5th through high school. In hindsight, what a difference between the two, especially in the teacher sanity department.
I don’t blame anyone for this issue but the parents, but I don’t know if I want public school teachers (government employees) exacting punishment on my kids, for any reason.
TV (Harry)
Yet another reason for charter schools. But of course the moonbat academics don’t like it because, GASP, some charter schools may actually opt to focus on the 3-Rs and have a displinary contract with parents. That would implicitly leave the edumacated social engineers out of a job and no access to corrupting those charter kids.
The liberal view is that this level of “tolerance” is mandatory, and such schools, barbaric though they be, are good enough for your kids.
Nothing will change while the teachers union controls the agenda. Parents need to demand local control. Vouchers will help. But I too expect more of the same until either such schools are dissolved because people have left, or they are forced to compete for students.
Without any context as to what this little girl’s life is like, everyone’s quick to throw in their ideas. Personally I saw a troubled little girl in that video. I don’t know what’s at the heart of that trouble, but I imagine it’s something bad, something we wouldn’t want any of our children to have to suffer through. So before we start blaming the parents or the system, perhaps we could look a little deeper, and maybe have some compassion for this little girl. You think anyone will do a follow-up story on this, what led up to this little outburst.
When a kid loses it like this, I think it would be obvious to anyone who spends any time around children, that something is really wrong. Where the wrong lays, can only be speculated upon, but that doesn’t stop some from promoting a political agenda that so neatly fits every little problem that life has to offer.
LaShawn, I’m relieved you at least object to the use of police officers in this case…
Moderately edited to remove sarcasm directed toward blog hostess. - Admin
Ack. Shame on you Aaron.
Shame on you Baklava for saying shame on Aaron.
It’s obvious this child has issues, most of which stem from BAD PARENTING. I do feel sorry for her, I’m sorry that she has poor role models who have taught/encouraged the bad behavior that she displayed on the video tape.
She didn’t learn to act like that by herself.
Tiffany, Baklava’s probably referring to the nasty stuff I deleted from “Aaron’s” comment. I tried to get to it before anyone else saw it.
Please see my comment #19.
Point taken. I stand corrected. Carry on.
I think it’s a sad situation, but I don’t think the school had much choice but to call the police-and from what it sounds like the police didn’t have a lot of choice either. The handcuffs weren’t meant as punishment but to keep both her and the police safe. I’ve seen my nephew in a full fledged temper tantrum while his mother was driving. It’s dangerous.
The out of control behavior had been going on for some time. The mother said she couldn’t come to the school to pick her child up for an hour, and gave instructions to “not touch” her child. And she didn’t mean “not touch” as in spanking or such, she meant no physical restraints, such as a hug. I feel badly for the child, but actions have consequences. Unfortunately, society and parents have restricted what teachers and schools can do when a child is out of control. If distraction, giving the child time to vent and other non touch interventions don’t work, and the child is destructive and/or harming herself/himself or others then the only other alternative is to call the police.
If you haven’t visited La Shawn’s pointer to Baldilocks, then you should check out the St.Pete newspaper article that she references.
http://sptimes.com/2005/03/18/Tampabay/In_schools__violence_.shtml
I’ve seen the video. Little girl showed out!
By the time she was in the principal’s office, she was calmly sitting in the chair. The police came in, told her that they were going to follow through by handcuffing her, and proceeded to do it. That’s when the girl went off, for good reason, again.
I saw the mother’s interview and she needs to be smacked as well.
To the poster who mentioned the video taping reason, I saw an interview with the teacher, and she said she was taping her class for self evaluation purposes.
LaShawn, again eye to eye.
Most of the comments above focus on preventing the situation. “The parents should…” “The school should…” “The police should…” And most of them I agree with.
However, the reality is, the little girl was on a rampage. Not that there’s anything wrong with that -:). She was violent and had to be restrained. Clearly this was not the first time. OK- pop quiz - you are the teacher with a violent little girl. What do you do now? Forget what should have been done in the past. What do you do now? You better not touch her. What do you do now? You call the police.
Education equals discipline and without each of them, you can not have any of them. We need to go back to how schools were run before in a more sensible approach.
This republic is operated on the premise that it’s electorate needs to be educated so we can keep the country going from one generation to the next. I pay school taxes in my school district and have no children but it is my duty to make sure that our children in my city are educated so they can be productive citizens. I owe that to society to pay my fair share of taxes to educate our children. I am a fiscal Republican too but I understand how important education is to the well being of our society. We need solutions to these problems with discipline in our schools.
First of all we need to stop the law suits from parents. We need our legislators in our states to craft laws that take these lawsuits off the table completely. Family groups, Republicans and the teacher’s union need to join forces to get this legislation done. Parents need to be accountable for their children’s actions. We need a 3 strikes and you’re out policy to parenting. When a child behaves like this poor little girl did then we should not cuff her but help her by getting to the root of the problem her parents. The 3 strikes should be a time when their is a serious disruption, when a crime is committed, guns or knives, consistent fighting, consistent disruptions in a class, disrespect to the faculty and staff and finally habitual truancy. If others can think of worse stuff then that too. Once you child has struck out then he/she is sent to educational board with powers of a magistrate. This board has powers to remove your parental custody of this child and place them either in a reform school, foster care, mentor program and anything that will work to turn the child’s life around. If the school district decides to paddle your child after the 3 strikes then the parent has no legal right to stop the school district. We need to place the authority back into the educator and administrators hands again. We need parents to start behaving like parents and we never need to put 5 year old children into handcuffs again.
Handcuffing that little girl was not a good thing.
I saw the Current Affairs account of the sit. Look at the mother of the child and then comment. The mother ought to have been arrested for not taking effort in raising the child. Police do that (the cuffs) in order to protect themselves from the courts of law that sue them all of the time. Yes, I do understand what you are saying; but view the whole tape and then listen closely to the parent. I will give you another POV; at least I think so.
God bless. . . Pastor John
The girl was calm by the time the police arrive.
How did that happen?
What are getting at, DS?
My best friend works with kids at “behavior modification”. His bosses gave him the worst, most violent kids because he’s 6′10″ and 480 pounds. He’s very good with the kids because he loves them, but they give him the worst because he could restrain them when they got violent.
Recently a parent complained about the restraint. Now, with these violent kids and teens, he isn’t allowed to restrain them anymore and can just “speak sternly” to them.
Not only is he and everyone around these kids in potential and real danger, but he’s losing hours due to reshuffling. No point in putting him with the worst anymore, right?
If mom and dad won’t do it, (if dad is even there) then somebody should.
A previous district I worked for gave teachers a list of tolerances…i.e. inappropriate behavior for which there could be no “infractions” written because the principals were being overwhelmed by students poor behavior. So instead of working to alter the behavior, the teachers were told that they were the problem, and that they needed to be more tolerant of student behaviors.
Needless to say, many teachers in that district have been on the wrong end of disputes with students regarding classroom behavior and discipline.
This is a three-fold problem.
1. The parents of the most troublesome students are either not involved, or take up for their child no matter what the situation. I see this daily.
2. Teachers feel powerless in the classroom because they are asked to tolerate (put up with) behaviors that should not be tolerated.
3. Students know what behaviors they can get away with and push to the absolute extreme, knowing that unless they do something absolutely drastic (drugs, guns, etc.) the school cannot get rid of them because that means a loss of federal and state funding for that school.
The solution lies in accountability. Much is written and spoken about holding teachers and schools accountable. What about holding the parents and students accountable?
Maybe that is impossible in today’s day and age. It stems from one concept: moral relativism. That has allowed accountability and personal responsibility to be thrown out the door. There is always someone else to blame.
La Shawn:
Shame on Bill O’Reilly.
Al Sharpton just discussed handcuffing.
Neither really cares about this child -
Much more interested in photo-ops.
and no doubt she will be “teased”.
This is another example “Feel Good” programs run amok. It all boils down to people wanting to “Feel Good” and not taking responsibility. And do you know what, the mother will probably sue and at the very least settle out of court. So this is not going to do anything to discipline the child and teach her responsibility. The only one that will be hurt is this beautiful little girl.
This is a clear result of a generation of fuzzy thinking.
1. Parents aren’t responsible for kids anymore. Our local schools run classes in how to report your parents to county workers.
2. Schools aren’t responsible for kids anymore, they just blame the parents or call for help.
3. Police aren’t responsible for kids anymore, they just have mindless procedures.
Criticising the parent might feel good, but the parent wasn’t at school. Calling the police to handcuff a young child is ridiculous and should be considered child abuse. If I handcuffed a child it would be child abuse, how do big, strong cops get a free pass.
We’ve got to make schools and parents responsible for their turf again, or this obscene incident is only the start.
When people ask what should be done to calm her down, I wonder what was done to get her calm before the police arrived.
Have I mentioned that the momma needs to be smacked?
Come on. What were their options? Let her keep kicking and hitting them? I thought the teacher in the portion of the video I saw exercised marvelous restraint. I raised for boys, four Black boys. If any of them had done half of what this twit child did, they would have been whipped. Not spanked - whipped.
It breaks your heart to see a little 5 year old hand cuffed. But it really breaks my heart to think of what will become of the child if she grows older with the same complete lack of control. At 17 or 18 her behavior earn her an assualt charge without breaking a sweat.
Melvin
My wife is a Kindergarten teacher, and I am not sure what I would tell her to do if a child was having an out-of-control rage, destroying and terrorizing the class. But once the decision to call the police is made, they are going to do what they have to do: control the actors in the situation. The little girl’s mother is the one who should be charged with wrong doing in this, imho. She is the one who knows she has a spoiled, physical brat and expects the school to just coddle her. Toss the kid out.
I would not want my wife at risk to some irresponisble mother who would sue for disciplining the child.
The image, and its aesthetics, are irrelevant: the issue is not how it looks but what is going on.
This is my free opinion, worth exactly what you pay for it.
I disagree that the police man did anything wrong by handcuffing the child.
First, the officer did what he’s supposed to do: restrain the child. Everybody seems mad that he used handcuffs but nobody has suggested what else he should have used. Whether he’d tied her down with rope or taped her to a chair, his goal was the same. As an adult looking at this, we see the “social stigma” that comes with handcuffs. Everybody needs to realize that the handcuffs were used appropriately here. Instead of cuffing some poor girl who brought sissors to school, they got it right this time and restrained an uncontrolled child.
The second point you have to keep in mind is that the policeman told her that she would be cuffed if he returned. Good thing the policeman kept his word concerning her future punishment. It might the first she’s gotten in her life!
Another thing I don’t think anybody has mentioned, is that the police are not trained to handle temper tantrums. They simply must deal with it in the same manner as adults. They don’t carry seperate tools for working with children.
Sure, I wish it had never gotten to the point where the police had to be called. The teachers should have had the power. Simply, the police did exactly what police do. Don’t expect them to suddenly be child experts and come up with a new and novel solution. The only change in the police department would be for them to take away their power to restrain the children and just add another spectator to the mess.
La Shawn, you should add http://www.JoanneJacobs.com as a link for this story. She’s a teacher blogger and is also talking about it.
Nothing will change because clueless and arrogant judges uphold the tenets of ultra liberalism in this country. Lawsuits that should be dismissed get a hearing. Authority figures run for cover in the face of boundless impudence. The government has embraced atheism.
This is not the worst of it. If someone doesn’t teach little miss hissy fit the facts of life, someday it won’t be a nice policeman dealing with her. Someday she may either murder or be murdered. Hand cuffs - ho hum…
Take the child from the mother and let her be raised by wolves. She’ll come out better.
It takes a village to ruin a child. Where’s the father?
First, the officer did what he’s supposed to do: restrain the child. Everybody seems mad that he used handcuffs but nobody has suggested what else he should have used.
If you see the version of the video where the police come in, you will see the girl sitting quietly in the chair. The police speak to her, then they get her arms and put on the cuffs. By this time, she is screaming again. With good reason.
So, again I ask. Since the girl was already calm, what did they do to calm her down?
The second point you have to keep in mind is that the policeman told her that she would be cuffed if he returned.
She was already calm. So to handcuff her at that point, instead of waiting for someone to come get the child, was the right thing to do?
No.
If she was acting up when they came in, yes.
I have started an informal letter writing campaign. Feel free if you want to join…..I sent this out en mass yesterday.
For those of you who have been following the national news, a report was recently made on a 5 year old girl who was handcuffed by police and taken from school. Being that my wife and I think this is abhorrent and barbaric, I am organizing an informal email and letter writing campaign to simply state that as a parent and concerned citizen, I categorically reject this kind of treatment of a child of any race at this age.
Here are the links to the news sources:
http://www.local6.com/news/4415661/detail.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Police-cuff-tantrum-tot/2005/04/26/1114462016802.html?oneclick=true
If this is an issue which concerns you, I suggest you take a little time out of your day, and in a RESPECTFUL WAY, note your concern about this occurrence to the school, the administration and the police department of St. Petersburg, Florida.
The following is the contact information. Remember, this could be your child, or your young relative someday.
School
Principle Angelean Bing
575 41st Street South
St. Petersburg, FL 33711
Email: Angelean_Bing@places.pcsb.org
Phone: 727-893-2132
Fax: 727-893-5451
Administration
Pinella School Administration
301 4th St. SW
Largo, FL 33770
Chief Charles Harmon
St. Petersburg Police Department
1300 First Avenue North
St. Petersburg, FL. 33705
Email: sppd@stpete.org
Phone: 727-893-7780
Any idiot who says handcuffing a five year old girl under any circumstances is exactly that, a stupid idiot, no need to be PC about it.
This girl was five, and my 6 year old daughter weighs less than 55 lbs. Furthermore, she could physically hit me as hard as possible and I would feel more than a slight nudge. So irrespective of this daughters ridiculous behavior (which could also be a development disorder if you watch the tape) why would you need THREE officers, and then why would a grown officer trained to subdue GROWN MEN need to put handcuffs on a baby girl in kindergarten?
I emphathize with the administrators, I do, because they live under the constant threat of a lawsuit, however, are they not trained in how to de-escalate these types of situations? I worked at a group home for trouble teen boys (who made this girl look like a girl scout) and the first thing we were trained in was de-escalation, and these kids were offenders sexually, physically, in and out of juvenile detention and rarely did we have to get physical or call the cops.
Kids have acted up and crazy for years and to me the police hiding behind ‘policy’ is ridiculous.
To me this is almost as bad as the 10 year old honor student taken away in hand cuffs because she had a scissors.
Yet one more reason why my kids homeschool.
No cops, no cuffs. Just throw “any” kid acting like this in a (padded, vented) closet until the parent arrives. Then bar the kid from school until the parent gets control and does what parents are supposed to do (see Proverbs for that instruction).
Dell, you’re fighting the smoke, not the fire. Start a letter writing campaign to the parents.
The little girl was hitting people and this was probably the only option they had left. She was a threat to herself and to others, and she had to be stopped. I wonder if they did a tox screen on her. The mother is lucky the teacher isn’t pressing charges for assault because, quite frankly, she could if she wanted to. She had to tell that little girl several times “do not touch me” as she was hitting her. Kids like that grow up to be criminals, and IMO, putting those cuffs on her now may have been the wake up call she AND her mother needed.
Children of color don’t need yet another stigma, especially one that labels them incorrigible or incapable of learning. Plus, this image in the press lends itself to SWEEPING generalizations and stereotypes.
This child is NOT the devil incarnate. YES she was wrong. YES she needed to be disciplined. YES her mother clearly needs help. But painting a picture of a raving maniac that has ascended from the depths of HELL to keep these poor poor children in ultimate DOOM and PERIL is a little overly DRAMATIC.
Placing ANY child in a HOG TIED position and placed in the back of a police car would be traumatic. But I guess until it happens to one of YOUR children we will never know. She isn’t an animal. Please dont treat her like one.
Sensitivity shouldn’t be so hard to give someone. but in this society, public spectacle, ridicule and shaming seems to be the Millenium equivalent to throwing the less advantaged to the lions in the Roman Coliseum. Shame on us.
The WORSE thing this child needs is the idea that BAD BEHAVIOR needs to be rewarded. I agree that this case should be thrown out of an already beleaguered judical system. But if anything comes of this, perhaps an internal investigation of how the police deal with children will be addressed.
The quest for justice should be color blind. So should the quest of our teachers whose job is being underminded by parents that won’t or haven’t equipped their children with the necessary social, emotional and educational preparedness to learn. If this mom doesn’t do the right thing by this child, shame on her.
Sepia Love,
You do make good points about the media stereotypes of children of color. I do whole heartenedly agree.
In response to RepJ, I’ve seen plenty of little white kids who had cut up in various public places such as grocery stores, resturants and well as public schools: should they be tox screened as well??? I wonder will they grow up to be hardened criminals as well??
White folk like you who make sweeping implications really work my nerves.
If a kid is bad, they are just bad, regardless of their ethnicity.
The contempt for anything Black in America was evident again in this ugly situation.. white cops having no reservation about handcuffing a black child.. It makes me boil everytime I witness such disrespect for black kids!!!!!
It was nothing more than restraining the little girl for her own protection. It was the most humane way to keep her from constantly striking out and injuring herself.
You watch to many shows where a brilliant police officer comes on the scene, says a few words, and all is calm. That’s not how it happens.
Restraining the little girl like that is the last thing a police officer wants to do but it was necessary until they could get the parents to come and take charge.
It wasn’t to hurt or humiliate her, believe me. It was to take control of the scene, that and nothing mre.
“Paul - It was nothing more than restraining the little girl for her own protection. It was the most humane way to keep her from constantly striking out and injuring herself.
You watch to many shows where a brilliant police officer comes on the scene, says a few words, and all is calm. That’s not how it happens.
Restraining the little girl like that is the last thing a police officer wants to do but it was necessary until they could get the parents to come and take charge.
It wasn’t to hurt or humiliate her, believe me. It was to take control of the scene, that and nothing mre. ”
You obviously haven’t watched the footage. When the officers arrived THE GIRL HAD ALREADY BEEN CALMED DOWN…she didn’t start screaming again until the cops handcuffed her.
Secondly, it doesn’t take handcuffs and cruisers to restrain a child, if anything one police officer talking sternly would probably do the trick, I know it works on the bad A#$ kids in the youth facility I worked at, and these were hardened system kids.
Finally,
Redbeard said - “Dell, you’re fighting the smoke, not the fire. Start a letter writing campaign to the parents. ”
Dumb, the role of the police is not to restrain five year old little girls with no weapons, and sitting peacefully in a chair. The role of the public school system is not to call POLICE because they can not deal with a five year old girl. The role of administration is to maintain civility and organizational structure in such a way that incidents like this are de-escalated and not excacerbated.
That is the functional purpose of these organizations irrespective of the naughtiness of this child, whom by the way nobody is condoning, nor the disciplinarian style or lack thereof of the parent.
And do you think a child behaving in this fashion is an isolated incident? If not, why aren’t cops in schools cuffing kids on the regular.
(Comment by Paul Malingowski-Restraining the little girl like that is the last thing a police officer wants to do but it was necessary until they could get the parents to come and take charge.)
I disagree, the child was passively sitting when they lifted her out of the chair and placed her in handcuffs. Also it has been reported that her feet were ALSO cuffed as she was placed in the back of the police cruiser.
To me, this was OVERKILL, If the FLORIDA police don’t get some COMMON SENSE training as it relates to dealing with children, we will see more of these horrifying images.
Too bad it won’t make a difference until a WHITE child is manhandled.
*smh*
Hi,
I just wanted you to know that you have a track back on http://www.blackelectorate.com.
Keep up the good work,
Monika Brooks
I saw it this morning. Thanks, Monika. BlackElectorate hooks me up like that from time to time.
If my kids acted up the way she did, being handcuffed would be the least of my/their worries. Haven’t any of you heard of “good-old days” tales where a parent calls the local cops to teach their kid a lesson, either by mock arrest or even spending a night in jail as an object lesson in fearing the law? Granted those Mayberry-esque days are gone.
Why was the girl sitting calmly when they started to cuff her? Don’t know since there’s a break in the video. Maybe she saw her “boogey-man” and calmed down, hoping to make him go away. Will have to wait for the investigation to be completed and reported.
Why 3 cops? Because 2 of them were trainees.
Why did he say he would cuff her the next time? Don’t know and probably won’t know until the investigation is complete.
Why do some immediately think racism whenever it’s white cops arresting a black? Race victimism on auto-pilot.
As bad of a rep that child-protective services have. I’m waiting for them to come and get the kids for evaluation. I’m also waiting for some kind of punishment on the mother. If nothing else, it’ll take steam out of her pending lawsuit.
Seeing how Florida is on a roll with legislations in response to recent events, maybe they should consider a law to take lawsuits off the table where the instigator is the child.
I notice that the bottom-feeding lawyer said the lawsuit was about reforming the system. Yeah, right. We need to reform the parents in this situation.
La Shawn,
Thank you for keeping a finger on the pulse of current events and politics, yet casting a fairminded viewpoint that doesn’t bow to a PC agenda.
I have added your site to my list of MUST READS.
Your Sister in Christ,
Sepialove
(Granted those Mayberry-esque days are gone.)
Andy,
No offense, but Mayberry wasn’t the norm for MOST African Americans in the time that show was portrayed. Using the police to solve a child’s tantrum is as smart as swatting at a fly with a boulder. It was a misuse of tax payer dollars and counter productive.
While I agree that the school’s hands were tied based on the mother’s previous commandment of
“DON’T TOUCH MY CHILD!”, there needs to be an examination of policies and procedures in dealing with an unruly child.
She isnt the FIRST kindergartener to misbehave and she wont be the last.
Sepia, I know. I’m talking about parenting in general and how there was greater community support. I can recall getting switched as a 6-year old by neighbors in Fairfield AL and hoping they didn’t call Granny or I’d get it again. I also learned that if Granny told me to get her a switch, I’d better not bring a wimpy one.
Well, I’m not a big fan of hitting kids as punishment, because I think other methods of discipline tend to be more effective long-term.
It’s clear that this girl doesn’t have any discipline in her life. That is a great and recurring tragedy that plays out in all too many homes.
The problem with state education, as I see it, is not so much the schools (although they could use a little work) but the fact that many parents manage to simultaneously place all responsibility for their children’s education on the school, but come in shouting abuse and screaming for lawyers when the school even mentions the child’s behaviour.
Dell, I don’t recall saying that you or your comments were dumb. Perhaps you could see your way clear to giving me the same respect.
Redbeard - Fair enough, in the heat of a particular topic I get passionate. I apologize…
Andy - “I also learned that if Granny told me to get her a switch, I’d better not bring a wimpy one.”
Lord isn’t this the truth! Trust me I tried it once…big mistake :)!
{RedBeard offers Dell a cyberspace handshake}
Just to clarify, I believe this problem started with the parents and remains their obligation to solve, but I certainly don’t think the handcuffing was justified at all.
I didn’t realize the girl had “calmed down” by the time the police arrived. So now I have different questions…
1.) Is this child a “manipulator”? She kind of sounds like one, especially if her mother thinks her daughter doesn’t act out in class. And, yes, 5-y.o. are capable of manipulating adults. Most of us catch on (at least by the second or third child!
2.) What do her classmates and her parents think about the whole thing? If the girl regularly disrupted the class (which it sounds like), are they relieved that she’s gone? Did they witness her being taken away in cuffs and the police car? How do they feel about that? Seems to me that no one is talking about the effect on them, as bystanders in the situation.
3.) Based on the policeman’s comments, as reported, that he had told her he would have to cuff her “the next time,” it sounds like the police might have been called previously. Were they called by the school? By a neighbor? If they were called, where was Child Protection/Family Services? (Although, judging from other stories from Florida, they are pretty ineffective).
4.) Does anyone else find it odd that there are no stories about the girl’s behavior from neighbors or other family members? Was she an angel everywhere but school? (As a mom, why do I find that difficult to believe?
my question is - why did the school administrators have to contact the mother TWICE, only to be told (TWICE) that she was unable to come pick up her child for at least another hour?! If I had a problem with my child’s principal or teacher, and got a call that there was a situation, I’d get there as quickly as I could. Can’t get away from work? Don’t buy it. Unless the mother has abused the “family emergency” excuse, most bosses are compassionate about that sort of thing.
And if she got fired, I’m sure her overzealous attorney would be all over THAT case, too, right?
My oldest three children and I think the little girl should have been “taken behind the woodshed” quite some time ago. I don’t believe in corporal punishment in schools because I believe the Lord has only given the rod to parents to use. Yet I also believe children require the rod to drive foolishness from them. This seeming dichotomy is why we homeschool.
That and the fact that I’d be afraid for my children to have such bullies in their kindergarten classes (and I don’t mean the police officers!)
DS-
I totally agree. They had no business cuffing the child. They should have led her out of the classroom and dealt with it away from her mates. That way she can’t show out. That happens so often in my classroom. If you get the kid out of the room, they back off real quick. They don’t want to look soft in front of their friends.
Dell-
I don’t condone calling the police, but litigous action against school districts has left few alternatives but to get the police involved. School administrators and teachers are hamstrung by regulations that prevent them from using almost any measure of restraint. Like I mentioned above, the kids know they can push, push, push and almost nothing will happen. Parents increasingly take the side of their child, no matter how despicable the action, and teachers are afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing because they’ll get fired.
There’s got to be a better solution than where we are at now. But do we have the guts to stand up and make it happen? Thanks to some teachers unions and gutless politicians, I think not.
LB, I brought up JLP’s radio program just to hear you.
You did well.
LaShawn,
First, an “Amen” to your statement about homeschooling. It is truly the best way to fight the system and win for our kids.
I hate to say it, but as a homeschool advocate I see the bright side of every crazy incident like a child being handcuffed in school because of out-of-control behavior.
I hope that this and similar news stories will bring more parents to their senses and help them realize that to keep their children in public school is sheer lunacy. This is particularly true for black parents.
Victoria , that kid was just behaving badly and really it is the mothers fault. this what bill Cosby was critizing our people about last year.Also what makes you believe homeschooling is any better.I bet most of the people posted here were never homeschooled and you turned out okay.How do you know you children may not turn to a life of crime, or drugs?I think homeschool parents think they and their children are better than everybody elses kids.That is true arrogance if I’ve ever seen it.But I do agree that this Moral relatvism we see in our society should be thrown back in the face of the left, and point out to them this is the monster they helped to create.I know my parents would’ve beat the crap put me for behaving the way this kid did.They do need to bring back the “good ole days” because we have seen what these educrats and other have done to genreations of kids making them soft.T, the man who also says he homeschools his kids to keep them from getting bullied,sir, you can’t protect kids from everything,I know I experinced bullying and no it isn’t pleasant but if my parents had a had your fuzzy and Utopian thinking I would’ve been a simpleton,not to be able handle anything life throws at me and role with punches in life. In life you have to fight, how are your kids gonna be able to handle a toughmineded boss on a job?They won’t! because you have made them so ultasensitive to things,they’ll be soft as charmin bath tissue. That is what is precisely wrong with our society now, they can’t handle any harship or weather in any storm as previous generations did.
Certainly, a special need kid now needs extra special need since she is now traumatized by the whole experience.
Idiots.
“Lisa Gillim - I think homeschool parents think they and their children are better than everybody elses kids”
I know I do…
Why does it always turn into a white/ black thing? Not trying to be mean, just curious. Personally, I don’t care if someone’s black, white, or purple. This kind of behaviour isn’t acceptable for anyone.
If the arresting officer had been black, would he have been betraying his race by arresting the little girl? Or would we have not heard anything about it? No police officer should have been called in the first place but they all have a job to do. We shouldn’t make it harder on him by pinning “racist” on him, too.
I can imagine another scenario where the mother still hasn’t arrived, the child starts up again, another counselor is called in, the child continues her acting out and destructive behavior.
I can imagine someone just holding her arm tightly so that she cannot work her will. I can imagine the lawsuit stemming from the inevitable bruising that would come from the child trying to break away from any physical hand restraining her. Handcuffs were the kindest thing all ’round.
And she was a repeat offender with the police, so she started wailing because she finally knew that her will had been vanquished. Not a bad lesson for any out-of-control 5 year-old of any race to learn: Bad behavior brings unpleasant reponses. To shield a child from the negative consequences of their negative behavior is the worst sort of child abuse.
Her mother’s response to the whole affair will determine whether or not the child suffers any long-term emotional trauma or hard feelings toward authority. Indeed, the child has obviously never found an authority to respect until the handcuffs.
Okay, maybe you think me stupid, but, I have called the police on my own child, a couple of times.
I divorced my husband, because of his violence against me, and it was escalating to the point, where I knew, it would eventually lead to my death.
My son, was only three, when we divorced, but I guess he saw enough.
One day, when he was three, I was trying to dress him to go somewhere, he hauled off and punched me squarely in the face. I grabbed his hand, and explained to him, “You do not hit your mommy.” He said, “Daddy, does.”
Needless, to say, it was hard teaching him different, because I refused to hit him.
Well, when he was eight, I did call the police, and asked them, if they had an officer, who was not busy, if he could stop by and explain to my son, that hitting people was against the law.
A police officer, came by and explained to my son, it was against the law.
I know this sounds extreme, but I really did not know what else to do. I could not get it through, my young son’s head, that it was wrong to hit a woman.
Well, he is an upstanding, young adult now, but until the age of twelve, it was extremely difficult reversing, the damage, of what he saw in the first three years of his life.
The police, can be used properly with a child, in a non threatening manner.
Suzie, in Ohio
Suzie, that’s a good way to do it. But it was not a “911″ type of call.
Lisa said “But I do agree that this Moral relatvism we see in our society should be thrown back in the face of the left..” and “They do need to bring back the “good ole days†because we have seen what these educrats and other have done to genreations of kids making them soft”
So what are you going to do about those things? Continue to sacrifice your children to a system that you do not agree with and that is making your children turn out in a way that goes against your values and opinions? Or are you going to take action?
Lisa also said “I experinced bullying and no it isn’t pleasant”
Would you really choose for your child to “learn” through the same cruel experiences that you went through if you knew that there were a better way? I do not how many homeschooled children you know but these kids are a pretty tough bunch and don’t take mess from anyone. They know who they are, what they want and they are not afraid to be different.
“Also what makes you believe homeschooling is any better”
Statistics, baby, statistics.
“were never homeschooled and you turned out okay”
We will never know if I could have turned out better. Heck, maybe if I were homeschooled I could have become the first black woman president of the United States!
Lisa, another reason for homeschooling is that parents want to protect their kids from corrosive educrap tossed around by elites and to prevent their kids from being another experiment gone awry statistic. If that’s arrogant, whatever.
Another factor, leastways in my sister’s case for homeschooling is that they want her son on Ritalin. Yeah, right!!!.
What if the police hadn’t handcuffed this little girl. What if they had just held her by the arm? And then what if she jerked her arm away and got a bruise? What to you think the mother would have done seeing a bruise on her 5 year old’s arm? Scream police brutality, maybe? I think the police were smart in the way this was handled.
This topic is fascinating. The police, if they did not use cuffs on her, would have gotten charged with assaulting the little brat. Mom is getting paid to peddle her propaganda about this on TV. The teachers and administrators have torn up offices and classrooms, and their kids are in turmoil. The little girl is still a spoiled brat with out of control rages. My wife had a boy in her kindergarten class last year whose father is in prison and whose mother is living openly with ‘boy friends’. The kid would expose himself to both girls and boys, fondle himself while doing so, invite others to fondle him as well, hit, bite and scratch other kids, and it took my wife most of the year to get this kid away from her class. His mother would threaten my wife and the school if they even took him out of class to make him calm down. It was clear to counselors that the boy was being severely abused at home, probably by the boyfriends.
This girl should be tossed out of school. She is a danger to others and herself. Her mother investigated for child abuse. Teacehrs in a public setting are in a lose-lose situation between pc administrators and lawyers sharking around looking to steal millions via trumped up charges. If we had to do it again, I think we would definitely look to home schooling.
This topic was water cooler talk in the teacher’s lounge in my school today and all the teachers that weighed in come to the same consensus: because of the fear of losing our jobs and fending off lawsuit after lawsuit, teachers and administrators see no other option.
Until you convince us that parents are going to take responsibility and parent, and lawsuits and getting fired are no longer options in these cases, we as teachers will more and more utilize the police. Not because we want to, but because the current climate dictates to us that we can do little else.
It is a tragedy for this child to be cuffed. It is also a tragedy that our society has pushed us to the point that teachers and administrators feel so threatened.
Exactly right ebnelson.
Critics fall upon those trying to deal with a situation they didn’t create.
The fire and brimstone should fall upon whoever has been in charge of this baby. But lawyers find no money there and a parent who created the problem all of a sudden finds a gold mine in a baby they’ve abused.
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