Six year old is in the principal’s office. She is upset. She is tearing things off the wall. She is throwing furniture. The school can not reach her parents. The school calls the police. The police handcuff her. Should they have handcuffed the child?
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Should they have handcuffed the child?
2012-04-17 Tue T1346 EDT
Y E S ! … for HER safety ‼
Scenario_1 :
Child is throwing items ;
Principal says to child , “Please stop throwing ; you may hurt yourself .” ;
Child continues throwing items ;
An item strikes glass and glass shatters ;
A piece of sharp glass strikes child in eye AND another pieces cuts jugular vein ;
Principal calls school nurse then calls emergency squad ;
Nurse stops blood flow ;
Squad arrives , stabilizes child and takes her to Trauma I hospital .
Child is blind in one eye , receives transfusion for lost blood , begins healing .
Parents ask what happened .
Principal explains child threw items , item shattered glass , squad was called .
Scenario_2 :
Child is throwing items ;
Principal says to child , “Please stop throwing ; you may hurt yourself .” ;
Child continues throwing items ;
Principal touches “nurse alarm” and temporarily restrains use of child’s arms ;
Registered Nurse reports to principal’s office ;
Nurse restrains child with a medical restraining jacket ;
Child is now UNABLE to harm herself or others ;
No police , no handcuffs , no trip to jail , no assault charges .
Parents are eventually contacted and soon arrive at school ;
Restraining jacket is removed and parents take child from school .
QUESTION: IF Scenario_1 had evolved to serious injury to child because the principal did nothing , THEN would the parents sue the school system for doing not a thing .
I would love to hear from anyone what they would proffer as a viable alternative to handcuffing this uncontrolled child. Although only age six, considerable harm could be done to herself or anyone who was present. Short of tazing or using pepper spray, I think this was the best choice. What that brat really needs is prohibited by law in most states
Home training begins at home. One might intially react and say there is no way this child should have been cuffed, but if they had tased her the world would have come down on her. For the school to call in law enforcement i have to assume this was far beyond misbehaving. her parents are lamenting why would they do this to my child? My question to them is how did they let her get so far out of hand.
It appears the child may have a medical issue that has not been diagnosed , is not being treated or both .
If a child is in danger of harming herself or others and immediate action is necessary , what is the problem of an illuminated , TV monitored room , designed so that it is impossible for one to harm ones self ?
If some psychological trauma is to occur , IMO , a padded security room is less traumatic than a handcuffed ride to the police station in a police cruiser .
I agree it will take a school board and administration able to think outside the box to accomplish , but there must exist a better way not being used .
I suggest lack of positive discipline (guidance) at home may have contributed to the problem being discussed .
I hope you know that I was being facetious in mentioning tasing or pepper spraying. But I suspect you’d find that easy enough to believe coming from me.(lol)
That the parents would raise the question of why they handcuffed her child and offered the “having a bad day excuse” is a clear indication that they neither understand or have taught their child anything about self control or personal responsibility. Expect more news stories about this kid in the not too distant future.
Bill what bothers me about the parents is they dismiss her behavior as having a bad day. This is beyond a bad day. they want to be angry at the system and not look at their child. it is this kind of attitude that promotes victimhood. She was not a victim here she was by their own admission the aggresor and her behavior might call for some professional intervention.
musesofamom On April 17, 2012 at 8:09 pm
“… her behavior might call for some professional intervention.”
An excellent point , though I am tempted to politely disagree with “might” ☺
To me the child desperately needs some guidance that the parents are clearly not providing .