Cross posted at my blog Penndit.
Ok, so unruly children should be punished in one way or another. I’m not even against a parent spanking his/her child (so long as its very rare).
This, however, is ridiculous.
Video of 5-year-old getting arrested, leaving school in handcuffs
A video camera was rolling March 14 as part of a classroom self-improvement exercise. The camera captured images of the girl tearing papers off a bulletin board, climbing on a table and punching an assistant principal before police were called to Fairmount Park Elementary.
Then it shows the child appearing to calm down before three officers approach, pin her arms behind her back and put on handcuffs as she screamed, “No!”
This child has behavioral problems, and I give the assistant principal (or what looked like the asst. principal) credit for handling the girl as best she could. The girl needs some help with her behavioral problems, but arresting a 5 year old? WTF? I watched the video, and she had been sitting down in a fairly calm manner prior to them putting handcuffs on her.
The girl’s behavior was horrifying, but the arrest was just as difficult to watch.
Newsie’s Entries:
DuctTapeFatwa also mentioned this story in one of her diaries … it’s horrible.
I think you’re right to give the asst. principal credit for handling the child well. It certainly seemed so from the video.
The disaster occurred when someone — who was it? — called the police. And the police stupidly handcuffed the child?
And, I have another question: Did the mother, when she was called about the child’s behavior, ask the school to call the police? (I was only half-listening yesterday when this story was aired on MSNBC, and I think I heard that, but am not sure.)
I don’t know what the mother asked the school to do.
I couldn’t tell.
Now, handcuffing the child is just wrong, but even if they could handcuff her, it just wasn’t necessary to march her out of school handcuffed.
This will no doubt be one of those brief stories that focuses on the handcuffing. Pretty disgusting and one which is part of the problem toward children in this country. Punishing and the immediate use of force toward children instead of finding out the root problems in children who act up.
To me the issue would be why the child is acting like this in the first place and is she going to get help in the way of checking for medical problem, what her homelife might be like, etc.
Then again we are talking about Jeb bush’s Florida and that state has major problems with their child services, any decent attitude toward children and their problems or healthcare.
A lot of children simply aren’t suited — especially at such a young age (5 years old) — to having to sit quietly in a classroom.
Kids are meant to be active, moving, reacting. It’s quite foreign to so many of them to demand that they keep their hands, arms, legs, heads still, and not speak out of turn, etc. And children mature at different rates, and those at an earlier level of maturation find school behavior difficult to adapt to.
Kids who are the restless type often get targeted as trouble-makers, get punished for minor infractions, and a “vicious circle” is begun.
The child feels bewildered and unable to cope, the child gets emotional and tense, and that makes the child’s ability to control his/her behavior even more difficult. And, if the child’s teacher is a hard disciplinarian, the problem becomes more exaggerated.
If there’s no history of significant abuse, or other problems such as the mother having a history of using drugs, I might keep the child home, if possible, and let the child mature a bit more.
The public school system, after all, is an invention of the industrial revolution, meant to free up parents to work for industrial masters.
The female host was horrified!!!
She even noticed that the little girl was sitting quietly when the police arrived and that the police lied to the girls.
This idiot was still spinning for the school.
This was a set up and they provoked the little girl which is why they still went thru with it even when she was sitting quietly…
…before I even saw the tape I knew it was a Black girl… they would have never done this to a white five year old girl … this is irreprenhensible and disgusting.