Cops go
ballistic on 'misbehaving' preschooler 4-year-old
handcuffed, shackled, hauled off to sheriff's office
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.”
“That such extreme restraints would
even be contemplated in a case such as this points to a failure by those in
leadership to provide the proper guidance to school personnel in what forms of
restraint and force are appropriate when dealing with students, especially the
youngest and most vulnerable,” said a
letter sent this week to school district officials by John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, which was asked by the mother to intervene.
“It is imperative that Green County Public Schools take
steps to assure [the student's mother] and the rest of the community of parents
and concerned citizens that what happened to [the student] will not happen
again to him or other students of similar age,” Whitehead said.
The letter said policies should make it clear that
handcuffing, shackling and other “excessive restraint techniques are never
appropriate when dealing with children of tender years.”
“Under the circumstances, Green County Public Schools should
also rescind the suspension imposed upon [the student] and remove any
indication of the incident from [the student's] records. The trauma [the
student] has endured, which continues to cause him nightmares and may forever
taint his experience and thoughts about school, should not be compounded by a
blemish on his record.”
Whitehead asked for a response to the letter by Dec. 30.
When the conflict with the student arose Oct. 16, his mother
was called, and she informed the school she was on her way to the school.
However, school personnel then called a Greene County deputy
sheriff to confront the preschooler, which agitated the student further.
“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,” the letter said.
“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.”
The letter noted that not only has a psychologist confirmed
the incident could have “long-term consequences,” the school’s actions also may
have been a violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protections against
unreasonable seizures.
“It is self-evident that handcuffing and shackling a
four-year-old by a law enforcement officer is excessive, unwarranted and
unnecessarily traumatizing,” the letter said.
“That it was a sheriff’s deputy and not a public school
official who handcuffed and shackled this 4-year-old does not detract from the
fact that this mother entrusted her son to the care of school officials,
trusting them to care for him as she would, with compassion, understanding and
patience,” said Whitehead, author of “A Government of Wolves: The Emerging
American Police State.”
Source:http://www.wnd.com/2014/12/cops-go-ballistic-on-misbehaving-preschooler/
No comments:
Post a Comment