Kindergartner handcuffed, taken to police station after allegedly throwing tantrum

I have four kids, and all of them know they can not act like this, ever. I raised them to know that bad actions have bad consequences. I'm sure all was done that could be done before they slapped cuffs on her. The principal being hurt during the tantrum shows that she was totally out of control. Cuffing her was probably the only safe way to transport her out of the classroom. I may not have needed to end at the police station, but I doubt releasing her to the "parents" from the school would have done any good whatsoever.

Seems to me that no matter how violent a 6 year old was, as long as they didn't have a chainsaw or gun, you could just pick them up and put them in a quiet room, if nothing else a bathroom, which doesn't have anything throwable in it.

A cop car and taken to jail? The whole 9 yards?

For a 6 year old?

If I were the teachers, principle, or cop that did that, I would be SO embarrassed.
I'd be mad if I were the parent, but embarrassed enough at my child's behavior to just want to die too.

Originally posted by davidhanover
I read the Article. They took her to the station and gave her coke to calm her down. Motive may well have been good, but to charge her up with sugar and caffeine laden drink??.

Morally bankrupt, handcuffing a 6 year old justifying it by saying its policy.
Something seriously wrong with a school that cant control a 6 year old child.
Not smart parents making lame excuses for a childs rotten behavior.

Seems to me like any incident there are multiple failures.

For a child throwing furniture and a tantrum to that extent, letting her be unrestrained in that kind of mood could put her at risk of hurting HERSELF .. and if she hurt HERSELF while being transported by law enforcement, that would make them completely responsible.. as bad as it sounds, it was not harmful.. if the parents had better control of their kids in how they were brought up, it might not even have happened in the first place..

Originally posted by type0civ
I'm stunned at the comments I see here.

Lets get something straight here, six year olds cannot resist arrest and policemen should never feel the the need to arrest one. There is something wrong with the psychology of police today. In fact they are selected based on a psyche profile so its by design.

Also, our lawsuit based society has taken away the ability of our educators to instill discipline in our children and the result is a six year old running the show.

edit on 17-4-2012 by type0civ because: (no reason given)

the ultimate paradox....

What's the problem? The teachers can get sued? How did this happen? Teachers restraining out of control children...What's the answer? Sue them ... What now? Call the cops ... Whats the problem? Cops restraining out of control children. Whats the answer? Sue them.

So what now?

The bleeding hearts around here don't understand where to place blame...with THEMSELVES ... this is a world YOU created. A world of video cameras and law suits. And guess who runs the show?

Criminals....ages 6-60 ... Sleep in your bed.... You made it.

A parent can't spank a child or correct
them without CPS getting stuck up
their rear end, but they can hand cuff
your kid like there a prisoner no problem
5 year olds can be hand cuffed and terrorized
but not spanked? What has this world come to..
These sickos need to be fired.

Yeah this isn't really a fault of the police at all. They were following their process and made no error in judgement as they were called to the scene of an unruly child who was a danger to those around them.

This totally lays with the parents, and frankly they've failed.

Ok, I would have been slapped and sent to the corner if I did any of those things.

Why were the cops called on a six year old having a tantrum? Why was a six year old let loose long enough that she could knock over that bookshelf in the first place?

reply to post by smyleegrl


Very insightful and informative post. It is obvious you have a similar problem to other parents quoted but have handled it much better.

My son often goes into rages. He has a speech impediment, so he's only intelligible to others about 50% of the time. When he can't make himself understood, he loses his cool.

You have obviously spent time, money and used your own experience to identify the root cause of the problem.

At that point, if I or my husband can remind him of his breathing exercises, we deescalate him within a minute.

You have acknowledged that you & your husband as parents have a responsibility to help this problem

He's thrown chairs, desks, books, trash. He's ripped things off the walls (including items secured by nails). He can be a real danger to himself, his classmates, and his teacher.

You have recognised that your child's behaviour is dangerous

However his teacher can't do that, so he loses his temper in a major way.

As a parent, I hate to see my son restrained while he screams at the top of his voice. As a teacher, I know its the only thing that can be done AT THAT POINT. Safety has to come first, and that typically means restraining him.

You have recognised that sometimes others cannot help this problem and that sometimes radical steps need to be taken that cannot be avoided.

He's never been "arrested" but I have honestly thought about taking him to the local jail for a tour. That's how desparate I've felt before.

The key to working with these children is to figure out what triggers the behavior, then help the child overcome that problem. My son's problem is making himself understood....so we have picture cards he can use to explain what he needs. With other students that don't handle change well, we use picture schedules so they know exactly what is happening next.

Each child is different and each child should be treated differently. The parents of this child should meet with the school and come up with an IEP (individualized education plan). The IEP will give specific guidelines concerning how to handle crisis situations. Also, the IEP is a legal document. If the teacher or school isn't following through with the IEP, then the parents have legal recourse.

If anyone has questions about getting an IEP for your child, just U2U me and I can walk you through the process.

You have then tried to implement some sort of constructive plan or steps to manage this.


The whole point of my post is to show the left wing ATS babies that the parents in this case are most at fault for not trying their best to help resolve this issue. The quoted post shows exactly what a parent should be doing for a problem child. Things will still happen as even though they are still children they do make their own choices and as parents you need to do everything in your power as parents to help them make good choices.

The parents in this case are in "denial" and they are hiding behind that denial. You do not need to know the answers yourself but it don't take a rocket scientist to work out that there is a problem and take that problem to a medical professional for assessment. These people will probably even try to get compensation as a reward for their negligence.

At some point every man makes a decision that defines him. You are not a man if you handcuff a kindergarden kid. You are a punk. You have one life. If you are a man learn to act as a man. In the end that is all you have,

reply to post by lacrimaererum

the real question is... will this prevent him from coming back into school with a machine gun or will it possibly instigate it happening in the future?

we have the news media to thank for glorifying Columbine that has made it part of our everyday lives...

reply to post by lacrimaererum


personally I'm waiting for the facts to come out. I think how much trouble the school would face if any teacher, principal, secretary, counselors, playground monitors anyone touches a child the school has a fat lawsuit against there already financially strapped system, so instead of facing a lawsuit and many would loose their job they call the police. Perhaps this 6 tear old wad swinging her hands around or throwing a chair, we don't know the facts yet, judgment should be set aside for know. Think about it people.

Children more often than not have a reason to throw a tantrum.. and need to be explained to why what they are doing is wrong.

Knowing the American Criminal Justice system.

She was probably taken to the station to be sexually assaulted by police officers.
Then put into a holding cell with criminals.

By how the schools and Police are acting over this just give her the chair, Fry her ass that will be a lesson to the other kids better than expending all the resources on discipline and explanation.


Economics and Authoritarian regimes IE the Police Force and Military are throw backs from ages of Feudalism and Serfdom.

We are meant to evolve not stagnate, This is also the reason a-lot of scientists do not shy away from debates on Euthanasia.



These are all just symptoms of the larger problem of Humanity being disassociated with itself.

Take 3-4 revolutions a day
And a heavy dose of compassion at lunch time.

See you on the Bell curve.

After reading the first page of this thread I was quite annoyed and was going to respond at that point, but decided to continue reading into page 2, gradually I became less annoyed on realising that I'm not the only one who thinks the parents are the biggest problem here.

Not just in this case but in general...parents are becoming lazier, more selfish and themselves have little or no respect for society, so it's little wonder their kids are no different.

I think especially over the last 10-15 years there's been a oticeable change not just in kids and how they behave but in the parents...somewhere along the line the quality of parenting declined and continues to do so, I don't think education is much better either...30+ kids to a class, it's all uniform and textbook...teachers think they can apply a sort of template method to all kids and it's stupid. Not all kids are the same, have strenghts and weaknesses, etc. I find it difficult to believe the teachers of this girl who threw the tantrum didn't know she'd behavioural problems to some extent...I mean it's unlikely this was an isolated incident given the severity of it...surely they'd have noticed something in the childs behaviour prior to this? It's a failure on all parts other than the cops who I have to admit seemed to handle this quite well.

As someone said earlier it's the parents job to teach their children respect, manners, how to conduct themselves appropriately, yet some parents themselves have no respect and are unable to act sensibly or responsibly, I truly shudder to contemplate what type of offspring the kids of today will produce given that they're mostly selfish, ignorant, violent...it's just going to get worse.

Originally posted by type0civ
I'm stunned at the comments I see here.

Lets get something straight here, six year olds cannot resist arrest and policemen should never feel the the need to arrest one. There is something wrong with the psychology of police today. In fact they are selected based on a psyche profile so its by design.

Agreed.

I can't believe people here are defending the cop. This is exactly what they want people to do... justify it. So over time the police will gradually be able to use more and more force and people will justify it. Keep justifying it and they'll just keep applying more pressure over time. Next they'll be injecting kids with sedatives, or even tasering them.

I said it in the last thread and I'll say it again here: If I had a kid that age and a cop handcuffed him/her, I'd be the next one getting handcuffed after hospitalizing the cop.

What a stupid thing to do. Do they realize that this is just going to make her hate authority that much more when she grows up and remembers this? When I was thirteen one of my friends get punched in the face by a cop. He did mouth off to the cop, yes... but you can't just punch a thirteen year old kid. I don't trust any cop. Not after some of the unnecessarily violent acts I've seen them commit in the last few decades. And they wonder why most of society hates them

Are you people that find this ok HIGH ????? My word what the hell has happened to this country and its people ,I fear the end of this nation is soon at hand and it is because the souls of its people have been corrupted and destroyed and all the goodness and sympathy has been bled dry ....

Originally posted by AshleyD
According to the article, there were several attempts to get a hold of the mother.

?

I just cannot blame the school. It's a sad story all the way around but if the child had gotten hurt or hurt another child, it would have ended much more badly.

and not ONE teacher can do a damm thing ..........sorry but I don't get this.. teacher: 30+ years old.. Child: 6yrs..

WTF is the problem ~!!!

this is a BS story...............sorry I'm not believe it .. totally proproganda !!!!

ETA: ok .. i don't get this .. so with 4 years of schooling and multiple classes in physicology( at least 101 & 102), counsiling techniques .. the ONLY logical reasoning was to .......yep handcuff her.. ?

Originally posted by LevelHeaded
reply to post by greeneyedleo

 

No. If the parents refuse to try to correct the situation then, I guess although I don't want to say it, CPS should be called in to investigate the family. If the parents can not or will not accept responsibility to parent their child, then other steps should be taken for the health, well being, and safety of the child. This should only be a last resort after all other options have been exhausted/refused to correct the situation. It seems that it would boil down to what's best for the child - Staying in the environment that has lead to this point or being removed form the parents. The lesser of two crappy deals.

This is the problem with the Nanny State. CPS is called every time a child throws a tantrum because surely it must be the evil parents fault and there must be child abuse involved. That is the mindset coming from a Totalitarian system in which the parents values have been already undermined and replaced by the control of the State. We have been moving in this direction for decades now. I remember when the candidate Barack stated that his biggest concern outside of genocide in Darfur was parents abusing their children. That is what he thinks in general about the parents of America and he has gone about saving children from their parents. Case in point, school workers replacing a child's lunch from home with some crummy McNuggets. We all heard that story didn't we.
You discipline a child its abuse, you don't discipline a child your child's problems are automatically your fault. It's a no win situation for parents and their kids.

reply to post by ArrowsNV

America is a disgusting country these days, run by disgusting people, and their laws are enforced by morons.

I have no problem when people make these comments about my Country. There are some disgusting laws, written by disgusting lawmakers, and enforced by disgusting law enforcement. My problem is that most often it is said by someone who lives in a Country that have their own disgusting laws, written by disgusting law makers, and enforced by disgusting law enforcement. It also bothers me when I look over to see what Country the person is from and they decided to leave that blank. I have only singled you out because you were the first post that I came upon that decided that this was an opportunity to attack the whole of the United States over an isolated incident. I am sure other juveniles have been handcuffed and placed into the back seat of Police Cars prior to this incident and will be in the future. However these types of incidents are rare, in my Country as well as yours. This juvenile was violent and out of control. The Police had to make a tough decision in order to protect themselves, others and the juvenile from causing harm. Juveniles do cause harm, and though I hate using Wikipedia as a source, I suspect that the information there is correct.
SOURCE

Murder committed by minors

The following 83 pages are in this category

83 pages of Juveniles who have committed murder. This doesn't include other violent crimes.

What's age got to do with it? Out of control is out of control, if it was really as bad as it sounds...and maybe even if it wasn't quite that bad.. It was probably for her own safety as well as the safety of others. And frankly, I don't see being handcuffed and held in a cell as being any more or less shattering an experience than her out-of-control behavior would be to begin with. Clearly there are some deep-seeded issues that already existed here.