Cops go ballistic on 'misbehaving' preschooler

This is a shocking story. A 4yr old kid was misbehaving in class in a school in Virginia so the school officials decided they couldn't handle him and called the cops. The cops then proceed to handcuff and shackle the kid before ordering him to speak to jail inmates. All to teach him a lesson. This is one of the worst stories i have ever heard. No wonder people hate these guy's.

Officials at a Virginia school turned an allegedly misbehaving 4-year-old preschooler over to law enforcement, where he was put in handcuffs and shackles and ordered to talk to jail inmates, according to a legal group intervening in the case. The unnamed student, who was enrolled in the pre-kindergarten program at Nathanael Greene Primary School, in Stanardsville, Virginia, was removed from the classroom Oct. 16 after allegedly “becoming agitated and throwing several items onto the floor.”

“The officer escalated the situation by treating the 4-year-old as if he were being arrested: handcuffing [the student] and transporting him in a police car to a Greene County sheriff’s office,” the letter said. There, the officer “forced [the 4-year-old] to speak with persons who had been arrested in an apparent attempt to ‘scare straight’ the preschooler,”

“No child, particularly children of tender years who are as emotionally fragile as [the student] should have to endure the shock and fright that accompanies handcuffing and shackling,” the letter said. “These extreme forms of restraint are meant to be used only in those instances where law enforcement officers would be endangered by their proximity to unencumbered persons who pose a risk of violence.”

mobile.wnd.com...

If this doesn't sound like a police state i don't know what does.

a reply to: DrunkYogi

That's outrageous.

We've all heard about young teens being taken to the cop shop to be shown what the cells are like, the booking procedure and the rest of it as a kind of 'be a bad kid and you'll be seeing this as a 'customer' one day...it happened to me personally aged about 10 years old...but a 4 year old toddler?!

That's insane...a toddler throwing a temper tantrum is a natural and common thing, it's part of our learning experience as very young kids, not something to be treated as a criminal occurrence.

I'm not sure what is worse here actually, what the cops did to a 4 year old or that the school apparently failed terribly to calm a 4 year old toddler throwing a paddy fit.

Unreal.

a reply to: DrunkYogi
When they took away the rights of the schools to deal with or punish a child who was misbehaving, it left the schools only one option, and that is to turn to the cops. The schools hands are tied, they can not, by various laws and rules do anything to a child that is misbehaving.

If the child fails a course, any more it the parent blames the school, not the child, even if the child did not do anything to warrent a passing grade. If the child complains, the school is considered the bad guy, and the school is often in a lose/lose situation. So most school districts turn to the only option left, when dealing with a child that is misbehaving, and that is the cops.

Surely this is a hoax of some sort. I can't imagine LE even responding to such a call, and grown men placing a toddler in handcuffs. They are parents too.

Preschoolers are typically put in "time-out' for a few minutes until they can figure out how to compose themselves, or the adults are bright enough to create a distraction from what is upsetting the child. This doesn't make sense.

a reply to: sdcigarpig

You're joking surely.

A 4 year old toddler...not a disgruntled and rebellious teenager is what were talking about here...essentially a baby.

a reply to: DrunkYogi

Wow.

That kid wont grow up hating and fearing the cops......

Found another article I think is about the same incident:

www.ijreview.com...

The school, teachers, LE officers and the whole bunch can get their check books ready if this really happened, because they all deserved to be sued. This is physical abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse of this child. You name it.

But, almost surely this didn't happen like this. Although the child in the article here, was scratching the principle, crawling over desks and such, and in special ed, especially in special ed, there would have been people there qualified in knowing how to restraint a toddler to keep him from injuring himself. If law enforcement came, it would have been to make sure the child was not being mistreated in some way.

So no, none of this is rational. Maybe further "cop bashing".

originally posted by: sdcigarpig
a reply to: DrunkYogi
When they took away the rights of the schools to deal with or punish a child who was misbehaving, it left the schools only one option, and that is to turn to the cops. The schools hands are tied, they can not, by various laws and rules do anything to a child that is misbehaving.

If the child fails a course, any more it the parent blames the school, not the child, even if the child did not do anything to warrent a passing grade. If the child complains, the school is considered the bad guy, and the school is often in a lose/lose situation. So most school districts turn to the only option left, when dealing with a child that is misbehaving, and that is the cops.

Are parents not responsible for their child's crimes till the age of 11-12 or something? If that is the case then tricking a 4 year old into believing he is a criminal when legally it is impossible, then what occurred here sounds like kidnapping and forced confinement.

Police seem to think that they represent some moral standard and they have the right to "teach lessons" to the public.

This to me is due to our addiction to be politically correct. Some people CAN'T teach no matter how well they did in college and some people CAN'T police no matter how good they look in a uniform and how hard they pound on their own chests. But since we live in a PC world we have to let people take the job regardless if it is a good fit.

I was part of the wolf pack when I was in elementary. We were not easy to tame but when Mrs. Row's heals started thundering the halls towards the class, we fell into form quickly.

Mrs. Row is probably gone now and replaced by some child of the state that couldn't wipe her own but without a written policy and police protection.

Children don't listen to you? It's not them, it's YOU! You command NO respect. Try Starbucks.

a reply to: sdcigarpig

No. You call the head teacher and then the parents.

Mind = blown. I can't even comprehend doing something like this to a child that age. This is utterly stupid, all the way across the board.

a reply to: ladyinwaiting

There are many reports of the incident from news sources on the internet LW. I would like to think it didn't happen but unfortunately it looks like it did.

I think that blame should be placed on the school as well. If you are tasked with caring for children and have to call the police when they throw a tantrum, then you have no business being in charge of children in the first place.

originally posted by: JiggyPotamus
I think that blame should be placed on the school as well. If you are tasked with caring for children and have to call the police when they throw a tantrum, then you have no business being in charge of children in the first place.

I can completely get behind this. I know parents call the police on their teenagers. To me, that's completely different. It's a freaking FOUR YEAR OLD. At SCHOOL. Unless this kid was running around with scissors trying to attack people or something, why? WHY WHY WHY???? Why were they not calling the parents? Why were the parents not hauling butt to school to see what was going on with their kid, if they did get a call?

In the interest of full disclosure, I will readily admit to doing the "scared straight" tactic with teenagers. First time they get caught doing something like shoplifting, and sometimes you can tell they just made a bone-headed decision and it's not indicative of a pattern of behavior. Often times the parents will WANT their child to get scared; not of the police, not of the parents, but of the consequences to poor decision making. But I draw the line at a stern conversation. Putting a kid barely out of diapers in handcuffs and taking him to jail is so freaking far beyond the line I just....I can't even.

I see now that they did call the parent and the parent was on her way. I missed that the first time. My bad.

a reply to: DrunkYogi
Heh,the kid is lucky the PIG didn't put him in a choke hold,or shoot him..

a reply to: MysterX
Look at the laws. Even where I live, the teachers and schools are forbidden from touching or disciplining a child. If a child gets out of hand, no matter the age, the cops are the first ones called to deal with such and then the parents. A teacher is forbidden from touching a student. If they do, then the teacher, no matter how justified it might be, is guilty and can be arrested for such. So no I am not kidding.

originally posted by: Shamrock6

originally posted by: JiggyPotamus
I think that blame should be placed on the school as well. If you are tasked with caring for children and have to call the police when they throw a tantrum, then you have no business being in charge of children in the first place.

I can completely get behind this. I know parents call the police on their teenagers. To me, that's completely different. It's a freaking FOUR YEAR OLD. At SCHOOL. Unless this kid was running around with scissors trying to attack people or something, why? WHY WHY WHY???? Why were they not calling the parents? Why were the parents not hauling butt to school to see what was going on with their kid, if they did get a call?

In the interest of full disclosure, I will readily admit to doing the "scared straight" tactic with teenagers. First time they get caught doing something like shoplifting, and sometimes you can tell they just made a bone-headed decision and it's not indicative of a pattern of behavior. Often times the parents will WANT their child to get scared; not of the police, not of the parents, but of the consequences to poor decision making. But I draw the line at a stern conversation. Putting a kid barely out of diapers in handcuffs and taking him to jail is so freaking far beyond the line I just....I can't even.

I grew in a backwood sort of place so maybe all schools didn't do this but... in or around the 2nd grade my class went on a field trip to a local (50km away) police station. We were fingerprinted and locked in a cell (we thought it was fun). Not sure why they did that. Of course I am not sure why in the 3rd grade we had a substitute come in and tell us about Hitler and the supreme race with blue eyes. BOTH "lessons" were carried with me right into adulthood till I educated myself.

a reply to: ispyed
What is the head teacher going to do? Nothing. And if the parents can not get there to remove said child, then it falls back to the law enforcement. In short, there is nothing we can do, save vote to remove these laws and rules off of the books and allow the teachers and parents the ability to discipline a child.

Scared Straight: The Preschool Years.

That the school even called the police on a four-year old is beyond ludicrous. Yank their license.

Where in Virginia? I live in Virginia . I had three boys go through the public education system and nothing like this ever occurred in their schools.

originally posted by: AutumnWitch657
Where in Virginia? I live in Virginia . I had three boys go through the public education system and nothing like this ever occurred in their schools.

I think the article said it was standardville or something? Greene County