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6 year old Kindergarten girl arrested, jailed and charged
- Thread starter b0und
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Another article - from 2 years ago....
Interesting.
In Fl too.
CBS/AP) An attorney says he plans legal action against St. Petersburg (Fla.) police officers who handcuffed an unruly 5-year-old girl after she acted up in her kindergarten class.
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!"
Largo, Fla., lawyer John Trevena, who provided the tape to the media after obtaining it from police, says the officers went too far.
"The image itself will be seared into people's minds when you have three police officers bending a child over a table and forcibly handcuffing her," said Trevena, who represents the girl's mother, Inga Akins. "It's incomprehensible. ...There was no need for that."
"Certainly, she shouldn't have been arrested," Trevena told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith Monday. "There is certainly a better way of dealing with this situation. …The educators have available to them a number of resources: special counseling, alternative classes, special education. This girl should have been evaluated. She was identified as having problems. This child shouldn't be in the regular class if there was a problem."
Police declined to comment, citing an official complaint by Akins that has sparked an investigation by the supervisor of the four officers who were present. Two are new officers who were being trained that day.
Spokesman Bill Proffitt said the investigation would be complete in about two weeks and the findings would be made public.
The 30-minute tape shows assistant principal Nicole Dibenedetto trying repeatedly to calm down the girl, who ignores her commands and begins punching her. The child's mother was called, but wasn't able to immediately come to the school.
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.
"You have to look at the whole history in this case," Trevena told Smith. "Apparently, there had been a previous conflict between the mother, the assistant principal, who you see in the video, and the child. And the mother's convinced that it was really just a personality conflict between the child and the assistant principal."
Why do the mother and Trevena plan to sue?
"Unfortunately, with our system of civil justice, the way that we handle these matters, is you have to sue someone in order to get reform. …To get the reform, you have to make them pay, because if you don't make them pay, they're never going to reform themselves. If they don't have to pony up, there never will be any change.
"The amount is unspecified at this point. We really are going to have to have the girl thoroughly evaluated by professionals to see what long-term damage is going to come of this. Clearly she was traumatized. …She's doing well in her new class. But we're concerned about the long-term effects of this."
Interview requests by The Early Show were denied by both St. Petersburg police and school officials.
Interesting.
In Fl too.
CBS/AP) An attorney says he plans legal action against St. Petersburg (Fla.) police officers who handcuffed an unruly 5-year-old girl after she acted up in her kindergarten class.
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!"
Largo, Fla., lawyer John Trevena, who provided the tape to the media after obtaining it from police, says the officers went too far.
"The image itself will be seared into people's minds when you have three police officers bending a child over a table and forcibly handcuffing her," said Trevena, who represents the girl's mother, Inga Akins. "It's incomprehensible. ...There was no need for that."
"Certainly, she shouldn't have been arrested," Trevena told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith Monday. "There is certainly a better way of dealing with this situation. …The educators have available to them a number of resources: special counseling, alternative classes, special education. This girl should have been evaluated. She was identified as having problems. This child shouldn't be in the regular class if there was a problem."
Police declined to comment, citing an official complaint by Akins that has sparked an investigation by the supervisor of the four officers who were present. Two are new officers who were being trained that day.
Spokesman Bill Proffitt said the investigation would be complete in about two weeks and the findings would be made public.
The 30-minute tape shows assistant principal Nicole Dibenedetto trying repeatedly to calm down the girl, who ignores her commands and begins punching her. The child's mother was called, but wasn't able to immediately come to the school.
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.
"You have to look at the whole history in this case," Trevena told Smith. "Apparently, there had been a previous conflict between the mother, the assistant principal, who you see in the video, and the child. And the mother's convinced that it was really just a personality conflict between the child and the assistant principal."
Why do the mother and Trevena plan to sue?
"Unfortunately, with our system of civil justice, the way that we handle these matters, is you have to sue someone in order to get reform. …To get the reform, you have to make them pay, because if you don't make them pay, they're never going to reform themselves. If they don't have to pony up, there never will be any change.
"The amount is unspecified at this point. We really are going to have to have the girl thoroughly evaluated by professionals to see what long-term damage is going to come of this. Clearly she was traumatized. …She's doing well in her new class. But we're concerned about the long-term effects of this."
Interview requests by The Early Show were denied by both St. Petersburg police and school officials.
velvett said:
Velveteen Hottie makes an excellent point. Educators in most cases these days have very little recourse in terms of punishing very unruly children. Even just 30 years ago parents tended to support the school's choice to punish inappropriate behavior in school, but now it seems parents are usually at odds with the school if they punish the child. And corporal punishment would probably illicit an angry confrontation between the parent and the teacher.
1975- What did you do to get yourself spanked young man!?
2007- What the hell do you think gives you the right to spank my child!!?
theoak01
New member
EnderJE said:
how else will these teachers respond when a child assaults someone,if its nothing more then a scare tactic i think its a great idea to slap em in cuffs,now taking the kid down to the station is a bit much but police presence,some time in the back of the cruiser sounds good to me,until we find another alternative
RottenWillow said:
Exactly.
Sheesh, if I ever did something like that hell that I would have received when I go home...
No joke.
The grade school by me has rules about ball caps and sweatshirt hoods - they must not be worn inside the school.
About two months ago an 8th grader was reprimanded daily about wearing a hood over a ball cap and when the teacher was not being listened to he asked the superintendent to come to the class and the SI pulled the hood off his head when he continued to refuse to take it off. Then took his ball cap and noted that he could pick up his hat when he was leaving for the day.
The mother is still going on about it...
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