New Orleans school district can no longer restrain and handcuff students under age 10.

[madfloridian]

The SPLC filed a lawsuit, as did the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, when a 6 year old boy was handcuffed to a table.

From Mike Klonsky's Small Talk blog:

School reform New Orleans style

Paul Vallas and lawyers for the State Recovery School District settled their suit with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana. Vallas agreed to end the handcuffing of 6-year-olds. But, under the settlement, he can continue to use cuffs, shackles and restraints on kids over 10 years old. Children at the mainly African-American, Sarah Towles Reed Elementary School in New Orleans were subjected to unlawful arrest and excessive force – including handcuffing and shackling – for minor violations of school rules.

Really not much of a victory for either side, and especially not one for the students.

Here is more on the settlement of the lawsuit.

State settles lawsuit over shackling of 6-year-old at Sarah T. Reed Elementary School


Times-Picayune archive. In July, Sebastian and Robin Weston talk about their son being handcuffed and shackled by a Recovery School District security officer at Sarah Reed Elementary earlier this year.

The Recovery School District will prohibit the use of restraints, including handcuffs and shackles, to bind students to fixed objects after the settlement of a lawsuit by a parent whose 6-year-old son was twice shackled to chairs by security guards at Sarah T. Reed Elementary School in May.

The settlement entered into with the Louisiana attorney general's office also prohibits all use of shackles and handcuffs on students younger than 10, and requires new training for school security personnel, said Thena Robinson, lead attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which, with the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, filed the federal suit against the school system on behalf of the student's family.

The restraint incidents began on May 4, when a security guard identified as "school police officer Jane Doe" chained the ankle of the 6-year-old boy identified in the lawsuit as "J.W." to a chair in the school's suspension room after being directed to do so by the eastern New Orleans school's principal, Daphyne Burnett, according to the suit.

Two days later, after an altercation in the cafeteria, a guard identified as "school police officer Willis" grabbed the boy and dragged him to the principal's office, the suit said. There, Burnett ordered Willis to handcuff the child and shackle him by his ankle to a chair, according to the suit. RSD officials admitted at the time that the boy was restrained twice, and after an internal investigation, a security guard was fired.

There was an editorial about this at Nola.com.

New Orleans RSD schools need a better approach to discipline children: An editorial

The Recovery School District says that it always had a policy against handcuffing students. If so, officials at Sarah T. Reed Elementary School in New Orleans don't seem to have been aware of it.

Otherwise, security guards surely wouldn't have shackled a 6-year-old to a chair twice last May. Then again, you would think that grown-ups charged with caring for children would automatically know better than to do such a thing.

The settlement prohibits all use of shackles and handcuffs on children younger than 10 and requires new training for security personnel. Training clearly is needed. If the security guards at Reed had been well trained, surely they could have found a better approach. One guard was fired after an internal investigation.

But security guards aren't the only ones who need to understand what is acceptable. According to the lawsuit filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, the Reed principal told the guards to restrain the 6-year-old. That is a troubling accusation as well -- and the RSD must make sure that no one running a school is so misguided.

Amen to that. A very misguided principal.

Florida schools have been guilty of handcuffing and arresting even kindergarteners. I remember one day when two police officers handcuffed and arrested two boys in my 2nd grade class for breaking into the teachers' lounge the night before. It is a strange and weird feeling to see that happen. Since I knew the home life of the boys I felt like saying hey you guys...do you really think that is the solution? But I knew better than to say anything.

Two Florida cities know just how to deal with those pesky 5 and 6 year old girls.

A video camera, which was rolling March 14 as part of a teacher's classroom self-improvement exercise, 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 School.

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!"

After placing the child in the back of a police cruiser, police released her to her mother when prosecutors informed them they wouldn't bring charges against a 5-year-old.

And there was another instance like this.

AVON PARK, Fla. -- Police arrested a 6-year-old Florida girl and even handcuffed her when she acted out in class. Police officers said Desre'e Watson, a kindergarten student at Avon Elementary School in Highlands County, had a violent run-in with a teacher on Thursday.

"I was scared," the little girl said.

Police claim the little girl got angry and began kicking and scratching. She even hit a teacher attempting to intervene in the disturbance. However, the girl's mother doesn't believe the story.

...."The kindergartner was booked in the Highland County jail and was charged with a felony and two misdemeanors.

When you handcuff, restrain, and arrest a 5 or 6 year old...there is a true danger to that. First of all, it probably isn't going to work in changing the child's behavior....and what in the world does it leave to try in the future on more serious behaviors?

[RavensChick]

1. Oh.my.goodness.

I'm so shocked I can't find the words.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Incredible

as an EMT I had very strict protocols to use restrains on adults and kids... yes there were a few cases were we did... and most of the time once proper meds were administered... they were gone. (Very LOW SUGAR incidents for example, give patient sugar... and trust me, those things are gone)

But I doubt anybody could claim a six year old posed a threat to life and limb.

(By the way putting somebody on a backboard is a form of restraint, a medically advised one)

Now the obvious question needs asking... where the hell are we? 17th century New England, or 21st United States? At times I think we are back then.

Oh and I am betting the child was African American as well... before I even read the article.

No, for once I am reacting before reading, I will go do such in a second to confirm my suspicions.

On edit, as I suspected... in case anybody wonders... no attitudes about slavery are not completely gone.

[abelenkpe]

3. Good grief.

How about not handcuffing or restraining anyone. Really it's a school not a prison.

[Joe Chi Minh]

32. I wonder how people managed in the past? Obviously too sophisticated a question.

[Angry Dragon]

4. The next step is tasers

then full out gun fire ............

[gratuitous]

7. According to some, you can never tell what these little monsters might do

Is full out gun fire enough? Shouldn't all teachers be equipped with shoulder-mounted missile launchers? After all, if students are truly the enemy, we'd better be prepared to treat them as we would treat any other terrorist. Can we ever be too sure in the name of security? We must protect the homeland!

[Initech]

5. First rule of project mayhem is you do not ask questions.

[eyeofdelphi]

6. holy shit!

if you were the principal, wouldn't your brain at some point kick in and say, umm, this is a bad idea? okay, let's see, if i were to personally try to restrain my own child with handcuffs, you can bet child protective services would remove him from my home. but it's okay for school personel to do it?
and i do agree with an above post. after being handcuffed in front of your whole class at the age of 5, what is there really to be scared of after that? jesus, what do they do to the kids that bring knives and stuff to school?

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Danger Mouse]

10. it's traumatizing and abusive, and disgusting. it makes me want to puke.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Danger Mouse]

15. I know that it's pointless to respond to a now-banned jerk, but I actually work with kids...

that have punched me, mocked me, even spit on me...and I would never consider fucking chaining them to a chair. That would make me an abusive asshole.

[Jefferson23]

25. + 1000 n/t

[Danger Mouse]

9. WTF is wrong with our country that people think this is okay to do this to children?

this flies in the face of EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT HOW TO DEAL WITH DIFFICULT KIDS.
:puke:

[madfloridian]

22. You are right. It goes against every philosophy of dealing with kids.

It's such a punitive mindset. It's scary.

[LostInAnomie]

12. You'd think handcuffing kids to a fixed object would be a huge fire-safety no-no.

I remember when I was teaching ED kids we couldn't even have a door that locked in the restraint room because of fire safety.

[Danger Mouse]

14. Obviously, thinking has nothing to do with it. This is just thugs exerting their authority...

on the helpless.

[LostInAnomie]

17. Meh... I'm fairly agnostic on it.

There has always been some form of restraint allowed when dealing with children with emotional issues (spit masks, soft cuffs, physical restraint, time out rooms, etc.). Even very small kids can cause incredibly grievous injuries if they are determined to, or are incredibly emotionally volatile. I had a co-worker that had a two square inch chunk of flesh bitten off her leg by a 5 year old autistic boy.

Teachers and administrators should be allowed to protect themselves, but children also have a right to the least restrictive educational environment possible. So, I'm up in the air.

[Starry Messenger]

13. Education "reform" is fascist.

Paul Vallas is a swine. But that's what you get in a society where the SOE can claim that a hurricane destroying a city was the best thing for the education system. A culture of bland acceptance of sociopathy.

[Danger Mouse]

16. Our society is fucked beyond all hope if people think stuff like this is okay. It's child abuse.

[sabrina 1]

23. I agree. I don't what to say. It's simply shocking and to think

they had to sue to stop it. Some people do not belong around children. I've had students who were pretty violent, disturbed emotionally etc. and never, ever would this have occurred to me. And if it did, I would have known it was time to get out of the profession.

Those poor kids need to be rescued from those abusive adults. And why do schools need these 'security personel'? Are they in prison now at six years of age?

I really somethings would like to go somewhere where people are sane. This country is seriously screwed up.

[Chulanowa]

18. And the country won't care until it happens to a little white girl. Just like kidnappings.

[KamaAina]

19. Well, that ain't gonna happen in the RSD

:eyes:

[Chulanowa]

21. I had completely missed that little portion. Wow.

My pissed-offness has been tripled

[KamaAina]

20. This is one of the schools that has to take the students the charters screen out

and this is the result. :grr: :banghead: :argh: :nuke:

Guess those kids are still "Waiting for Superman". :eyes:

edit: with charters now comprising 60 percent of NOLA's public* school system, one can easily imagine which students end up in the RSD schools. :(

[Jefferson23]

24. 20 years ago, would anything close to this scenario had gone down?

What a punitive ignorant group of fools and incompetents, shameful. This is happening in upper income districts or is this seen
primarily among the poorer ones?

[madfloridian]

26. More about the RSD...to turn around problem schools. Formed in 2003.

I guess I always thought it was formed after Katrina, but it wasn't. Katrina was 2005. Then recently Arne said Katrina was the best thing to happen to education in New Orleans.

Here is the FAQ page.

http://www.rsdla.net/InfoGlance/FAQs.aspx

"What is the Recovery School District?

The Recovery School District (RSD) is a special state school district administered by the Louisiana Department of Education. Created by legislation passed in 2003, the RSD is dedicated to turning underperforming schools into successful schools.



How does a state intervention work?

Schools that fail to meet state minimum academic standards for at least four consecutive years are eligible for state intervention. These schools can be placed into the RSD or retained by the local school board under the terms of a supervisory Memorandum of Understanding and related School Recovery Plan.



What is a Memorandum of Understanding?

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is a binding agreement between a local school district and the Louisiana Department of Education (LDE) that outlines necessary actions that must be implemented at a failing school in order for it to avoid placement in the Recovery School District (RSD). If the district fails to comply with the terms of the MOU or fails to make progress toward the implementation of the school recovery plan during the first year of the agreement, the Department may exercise the option of placing the school in the RSD. The degree of oversight involved in each school’s MOU will vary and will be based on the level of intervention Department officials deem necessary for the school to succeed."

[Fearless]

27. Need I say the real problem is that anyone is being handcuffed at all?

[madfloridian]

28. RSD..laying off experienced teachers, hiring TFA recruits

which means TFA gets money for each one hired. Pretty powerful comments at this page from last year.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/recovery_school_district_to_la.html

This part came after they mentioned the layoffs of experienced teachers.

"250 new arrivals

In interviews, four surplus teachers said they felt that Teach For America candidates were given preference over veterans in the RSD's hiring process, something Vallas and Teach for America's Orange Jones strongly deny.

"I went to the job fair and stood for hours in line. I called all the places they said were going to need people. I went through the whole process, and I got nothing, " said one surplus teacher who did not want her name used for fear it would make it harder to get a job. The teacher said she checks the job-vacancy list every day, but whenever "you call the principals they say, 'Oh, we've already filled the position.' "

Orange Jones said her program's teachers are in the same straits as veteran educators, and are not guaranteed jobs by the RSD. She added that many of the Teach For America applicants have been turned away by multiple schools, and that some also ended up in the surplus pool.

The Recovery School District has hired about 20 new Teach For America teachers for this school year so far and has a contract to hire as many as 30 teachers through the program, though Orange Jones and Vallas say the contract does not mandate that the district hire that many. In all, about 250 new Teach For America instructors arrived in the New Orleans region this summer to work in the Recovery District; New Orleans charters; and the schools in St. Bernard, Jefferson and St. John the Baptist parishes.

Dozens of those teachers don't yet have jobs, though Orange Jones said her organization is "used to teachers getting hired right up until the first days of school, " she said."

[The Straight Story]

29. Only a libertarian would be against the government being able to cuff kids

:hide: :evilgrin:

[herbm]

30. Gets 'em acclimated to whats its like in Angola. This is so wrong. This can't make sense to anyone.

[Joe Chi Minh]

31. Only in America. More M Python, Esq. That should be, 'under 15', at the earliest.

And that only because your law enforcement people - the ones that are always making the headlines, anyway - seem to be particularly 'thick' cissies.

[NOLALady]

33. Is there a pattern here?

Every child mentioned is non white.