Police: Handcuffing (5 year old) girl not a violation

[steve2470]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/04/handcuffed.girl.ap/index.html


Thursday, August 4, 2005; Posted: 3:16 p.m. EDT (19:16 GMT


ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) -- Police officers committed an error of judgment when they handcuffed an unruly kindergartner at school in March but did not violate policy, the department's chief said Thursday.

Chief Chuck Harmon said the two officers who handcuffed the 5-year-old girl were reprimanded for minor errors in handling the situation, which gained worldwide attention when a videotape of the confrontation was released to broadcasters.

But Harmon said the officers were not punished for shackling the child, who had torn up a classroom and hit an assistant principal before the officers arrived.

Still, Harmon said, the officers should have done more investigation, explored ways to defuse the situation and allowed school officials to take the lead in handling it.
<snip>

:wtf:

The police overreacted big time and that poor child's family (and her) need help !

[lvx35]

1. Its tricky for teachers, but that's ridiculous

I admit that its tricky for teachers with violence, because they can't do anything except in special schools for "emotionally/mentally" disabled, where they have security protocols for physically managing unruly students, but come on...a KINDERGARTNER?

[renate]

4. I don't know... schools are scary places these days

In even the nicest, most Leave It to Beaver schools, there are always going to be a handful of kids who are truly frightening. Even in grade school. Even, one or two a year, in kindergarten.

For whatever reason, some kids are truly and literally out of control, even at that age.... Whether it's a brain chemistry problem or a discipline problem or a neglect problem, there are some unbelievably violent, angry children out there.

I have a friend whose eight-year-old son has seriously hurt her physically. With him, it's a brain-chemistry thing--his parents are fantastic and loving through it all.

My guess (not even having seen the videotape or anything, so truly this is just a guess) is that the police officers had to make a snap decision between restraining the child themselves, which would have opened them up to a whole different set of accusations of abuse (adults wrestling a kindergarter?) or putting handcuffs on and letting the handcuffs do the job.

I wonder whether they were real handcuffs or those little plastic ones. I hope it was the plastic kind. I mean, surely even these days police officers don't carry around a set of 5-year-old-sized handcuffs. If they were the plastic kind, that makes it even easier to understand why they used them rather than restrain her themselves.

My sympathies to everyone involved. What an incredibly difficult situation.

[lvx35]

6. True, there are two sides to every story.

My father works as the school phychologist at a school for kids who have been labeled as "emotionally impaired", meaning they are not learning impaired, but have serious emotional problems. The school has a built in security guard and little windowless rooms where the kids get locked to chill out until they chill out if they get violent. It sounds extreme, but from the stories I've heard its necessary. And it would be hard to think of what teachers at a regular school would do if faced with the same kids. So yeah, there truly are two sides to every story, this one included.

[Kraklen]

2. They could have sodomized the kid with a broom handle...

there'll be people supporting it.

[demigoddess]

3. IF it is not expressly forbidden in the Constitution it is okay,

and all of us had better get used to it. thats what the bushies want. Next it will be people of the wrong color or religious persuasion.

[wli]

5. bringing Abu Ghraib home to us

Wait, they already have. US prisons.