Police hand-cuff 5 year old girl at school (1 Viewer)

[LanieParker]

http://www.sptimesphotos.com/video/office.html

Apparently, the mother is in talks to sue the school. There is an article, but I can't seem to find the whole thing.....

Admin, I just realized my title for this thread looks odd.... is it possible to change it to say police handcuff 5 year old at shcool? Sorry.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

It seems over the top, but rules are rules. The school has to be careful how they touch the child. They can't really discipline nor restrain a child, and it looks like this child's mother doesn't discipline her either. The police have rules to follow also, and when they take someone in custody, they have to handcuff them. If the girl acted out in the car and wasn't restrained, she could have hurt herself, then the police would be sued for that. While the lawyer claims there was no need for it, notice that one police officer knew the girl already. She knew when they came she was in real trouble. And only then did she start to behave.

 

[Leila Dougan]

I think the school did everything in their power to stop her. The girl was going on her tyrade for an hour!! Gees, I'm sorry, but most 5 year olds I know would surely calm down before then. It looks to me like this girl has some serious problems with discipline at home being one of them. Since the school admins couldn't get her to calm down, they did what they had to do. If anything, the mother should be suing the police dept, not the school.

 

[Joseph S]

Things are finally looking up for Florida in a decade, the 5 year olds are now outsmarting the folks in charge. There's no defense to having to handcuff a 5 year old. She's sitting in the chair when the police arrive and the first thing they do is go for the cuffs. Classic.

 

[Doug R]

I have no problem with this. See what a disaster the office is cause of this girl? How about her getting on the table repeatedly.

Those school employees can't do a thing.. I would have been scared to do anything, hold her, move her, anything cause the parents could sue. What if she fell off the table and broke her neck... who would be at fault? Oh yea, the school. What if a teacher grabbed her off the table and she got hurt getting pulled off the table? Who's at fault, oh yea the school.

The child obviously needed to be restrained. Perhaps there should be a better method of doing so other than the same handcuffs used on murderers but given the situation, I'm all for it.

 

[MarkHastings]

If the parents don't want this kind of action, then they need to allow the school to do what they need to do to stop children like this.

 

[LanieParker]

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/04/22/So...olice_ha.shtml

Here is one of the articles I read. Still looking for others.

I don't think what the school did or what the police did was out of line. This little girl obviously has issues and they did what they needed to do.

 

[Scott Simonian]

I agree. This little girl has some serious disipline problems. I would hate to see how she turns out in ten years.

Ugh.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

The police had no real choice, the rules required them to use restraints.

 

[Jed M]

What if the girl didn't show restraint with the handcuffs? Should they use a tazer or pepper spray?

I'm not saying I disagree with the use of handcuff, I'm just wondering where we draw the line in order to calm a child before he/she does harm to either him/herself or others? Its a scary situation. I blame the parents for this, but unfortunately, unlike the child, the parents usually goes unpunished, and in some cases are actually rewarded. So true. The strange thing about our society is that, as a whole, we are almost desensitized to everything, yet at the same time on a personal level we are so freaking sensitive about everything.

 

[Blu]

I agree the parent/parents are at fault...so what should have been done is when the officers took the very unruly child home they should have been handcuffed and pepper sprayed!

There is no excuse for this kind of behavior! That girl was seriously out of hand!

 

[Yee-Ming]

Bloody ridiculous. The child's behaviour, I mean, and the mother's (and her lawyer's) reaction.

Bad enough she doesn't discipline her child, the assistant principal does the best she can, and is now taking flak for it?

 

[Drew Bethel]

To handcuff a 5 year old is just plain WRONG! Where was the danger? Was she threatening bodily harm? PLEASE! :rolleyes

 

[Philip_T]

When I went to school back in the day, there was a little deterant to such behavior known as "the paddle". Ah, the good ol' days. I had one teacher that drilled 1/4 inch holes in his paddle for 'extra' sting. Most students usually stayed on the straight and narrow after an appointment with the paddle.

 

[Sami Kallio]

So true. I don't see any reason to get upset about handcuffing her. It didn't do her any harm but I bet it teached her a lesson. Too bad she needs many more lessons.

Child services should have already scheduled a time with the parents, letting her act that way is child abuse.

 

[Mark Shannon]

I'm guessing Juvie.

The police did nothing wrong in handcuffing that girl. The teacher did nothing wrong in trying to prevent the girl from getting hurt, and preventing her from trashing the office further. And the parents think they can profit from the horrible behaviour of their soon-to-be juvenile delinquent 5 year old? Puh-lease. Forget the child, someone oughta smack the parents right.

 

[Kyle McKnight]

I don't see why you think she shouldn't have been cuffed. She was obviously throwing physical fits and needed to be restrained. Didn't the cop say something about "You remember me, I'm the one your mom told to put handcuffs on you" or something like that.

 

[Joseph S]

1) She was sitting in a chair doing nothing when the cops came in and they immediately took out the cuffs. No hesitation, no talking with the child, nothing was done whatsoever before that by the cops.
2) She's 5 years old.

The woman in that video acted more like the 5 year old than someone who is supposed to be trained to deal with kids. Let's block the wall. On the table, off the table, On the table, off the table. The office is full of crap for kids to pick at, I question why she was brought into that office to begin with and why she was kept in it when it became an issue.

 

[Sami Kallio]

She knew the officer and she knew she was in trouble when she saw him. Of course she was sitting quietly at the table at that point. If they would have let her get away with it, that would have been bad. Now she knows what she is getting herself into and probably will think twice before getting herself into handcuffs again.

 

[RobertR]

Can someone explain to me why handcuffing an individual harms that person? Is there even a hint that such an act injured the child?