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April 25, 2005 at 2:58 pm #18032gossipingraeMember
This has been in the news and the papers lately.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A 5-year-old girl was arrested, cuffed and put in back of a police cruiser after an outburst at school where she threw books and boxes, kicked a teacher in the shins, smashed a candy dish, hit an assistant principal in the stomach and drew on the walls. The students were counting jelly beans as part of a math exercise at Fairmount Park Elementary School when the little girl began acting silly. That’s when her teacher took away her jelly beans, outraging the child.Minutes later, the 40-pound girl was in the back of a police cruiser, under arrest for battery. Her hands were bound with plastic ties, her ankles in handcuffs. While police say their actions were proper, school officials were not pleased with the outcome.
“We never want to have 5-year-old children arrested,” said Michael Bessette, the district’s Area III superintendent. The district’s campus police should have been called to help and not local police, he said.
The girl’s mother, Inda Akins, said she is consulting an attorney.
“She’s never going back to that school,” Akins said. “They set my baby up.”
How do you feel about this situation? Was it wrong for the police to arrest this little girl? Why or why not?
IMO, I feel that the mother of this child should be held accountable for her daughter’s actions. There is obviously no discipline within that household.
I believe the teacher was right in taking away the girl’s jelly beans, which caused the girl to act out.
They probably didn’t “arrest” her. It was most likely that the police put her in cuffs until her mother was notified.
April 25, 2005 at 3:25 pm #120166OreoMemberI actually saw video they took of the girl in the principal’s office. It was OUTRAGEOUS what they kid was doing. She definitely needed to be restrained…though hand cuffs were a bit excessive. The problem with many kids today is…THEIR PARENTS! “Oh..little Susie would NEVER do something like that! You set her up!” “Little Johnny is a good boy, why are you being so mean to him?” “Little Darrel is only 14, why he is just not old enough to understand.” Then, it goes on and on…no accountability. Granted, handcuffs is not the best way to go; with a child THAT out of control, hand cuffs is where she’d be heading in a few years without some behavior modification.
April 25, 2005 at 4:05 pm #120178m3rcyMembergees. i agree, its the parents fault for lack of discipline.
April 25, 2005 at 5:04 pm #120173gossipingraeMemberExactly Oreo. The blame is on the parents.
I can tell you, that if I EVER acted that way in school, my mother would have given me a sever spanking.
I do think handcuffs were a bit outrageous, however, what else were they going to do? As you know Oreo, since you are a teacher, there are so many laws out there today about child abuse. It’s best that none of the school staff tried to restrain her. One bruise on that girl and someone cries child abuse. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked down the street or in Giant and seen crying kids. Sometimes I felt like I needed to spank them, since mom and dad weren’t doing it.
But you know, the whole abuse thing is out of control. That kid’s mother should have disciplined her instead.
April 26, 2005 at 2:44 am #120171colinMemberThis was talked about in another forum, and I will post what I posted there.
Children get in fights all over the country all the time, and it doesn’t usually end in arrest. A 5 year old gets a little out of line, and they put restraints on her wrists?! That was COMPLETELY unesessary and out of line.
April 26, 2005 at 3:43 am #120176NessaParticipantcolin wrote:This was talked about in another forum, and I will post what I posted there.Children get in fights all over the country all the time, and it doesn’t usually end in arrest. A 5 year old gets a little out of line, and they put restraints on her wrists?! That was COMPLETELY unesessary and out of line.
Actually it was necessary, although she is only 5, she was WAY out of line, she was posing a threat to the safety of others. If you had children of your own in that same room as the little girl, wouldn’t you want her restrained from hurting your child? Grabbing the girl’s hands and holding her till her parents come, just doesn’t do the job, if restraints had to be used, its totally right.
April 26, 2005 at 3:43 am #120169QwertyMemberThink about it like this;
What she was doing was obviously pretty outrageous and a possible threat to persons around her. She then, therefore, needed to be restrained. The only restraint option to police were cuffs. These are wat are used for restraining. It’s wasn’t uncalled for at all.
April 27, 2005 at 1:37 am #120172colinMemberYou are telling me that teachers OR cops couldn’t restrain a 5 year old child without using handcuffs? Not only was the child 5, but it was a girl. I was under the impression that 5 year olds are not strong, and can easily be subdued without being arrested. Heck, I can subdue some of my 15 year old guy friends without using any handcuffs, and I am not even that strong.
That is beside the point anyways. I just do not feel it was morally right to put handcuffs on a little girl, regardless of what she was doing. If she had a gun or knife, that is another story. However, she didn’t. The same handcuffs that have been put on murderers, rapists, and thieves are now being put on little kids that get out of line at school?
April 27, 2005 at 1:47 am #120177NessaParticipantNot every 5 year old is weak, i am 19 yrs old and i have babysitted some kids who can be quite strong when it comes trying to restrain them from not hitting other kids. When a child gets into a tantrum, its not stopped easily, and like i said, the teacher or the police weren’t gonna hold the kid’s hands till she decided to calm down. Kids are different from what most people see them as being or think they should be, they not only are exposed to things faster, but learn how to be more violent faster too, not all, but most. Try tutoring at an elementary school like i did, the kids are more aggressive than you might remember or think they are.
April 27, 2005 at 2:46 am #120167OreoMemberColin, I’ll try to find the VIDEO of this child doing this. Some one had their head on straight and taped her because they must have figured no one would believe it without seeing it. The parents waited one HECK of a long time before they came to pick her up. And it’s obvious you are not around little kids that often, some of them can be VERY strong…and as hated mentioned, when they are in tantrums and out of control it is not easy to stop them. I’m sure the teachers and admin of the school did all of that as a last resort. People are so sue happy these days, no one wants to take something to that extreme. On the same token, as has already been mentioned, what if your child (or sibling) was in there? You can take the so called “moral” high road…but it’s one thing to see it as a situation you were not in and a COMPLETELY different thing when you see people potentially and ACTUALLY getting hurt. Perhaps some one has that video available and you’ll more fully understand why this was so serious.
April 27, 2005 at 3:16 am #120174gossipingraeMemberRight, as I said earlier, Colin, practically these days you cannot even lay a finger on a kid without someone crying child abuse. What if the teacher had held the child down with force that she was not moving? What would happen if that resulted in a bruise on the girl’s arm? I’ll tell you what would happen…the girl’s parents would see the bruise, call it child abuse, and sue the school district. You’re not seeing the whole picture or taking everything into consideration.
April 27, 2005 at 3:34 am #120168Dr KimbleParticipantI saw the videos, the girl was misbehaving, but not really anything to get ‘arrested’ over. She was just throwing what seemed like a normal five year old tantrum over some candy. I didn’t see any other kids in the room, but they might have taken them out to keep out of this girl’s ‘rage?’ I think the cops were right with the idea to scare her a little, but hancuffing her is a little much. It did scare her though, which is a great way to show a child that they need to knock it off or they will receive ‘grown up’ punishment. The media is what is messing this up, they are making her out to be a little hero and such, she is being rewarded for poor behavior…they should have just stayed out of it. I bet the girl would have learned her lesson just fine without the press yelling at the authority that subdued her. Now she will question authority even more :confused:
April 27, 2005 at 3:42 am #120179m3rcyMembervery good point. i have no idea whats going on seeing im living on a little green island.
but by the sounds of things shes not going to benefit from this discipline <_<April 27, 2005 at 8:13 am #120170QwertyMembercolin wrote:You are telling me that teachers OR cops couldn’t restrain a 5 year old child without using handcuffs?Not without being put under more scrutiny. Perhaps you would like to suggest something better? Hold her hands? That’s just silly. And almost anything would uncure possible calls for childe abuse investigations. Handcuffs are what are used and handcuffs where needed.colin wrote:I was under the impression that 5 year olds are not strong, and can easily be subdued without being arrested.Yeah that’s a sick idea. Let’s just like sit on this girl until her parents come. Or hold her ahnds behind her back for like 20 minutes cause handcuffs wernt invented for that reason or anythying..colin wrote:That is beside the point anyways. I just do not feel it was morally right to put handcuffs on a little girl, regardless of what she was doing. If she had a gun or knife, that is another story. However, she didn’t. The same handcuffs that have been put on murderers, rapists, and thieves are now being put on little kids that get out of line at school?Yes. Becasue what she was doing what not right.And as I already said, was a threat to other members of the society around her. THAT is why she was subdubed by cuffs.It’s really that simple.
May 5, 2005 at 2:02 pm #120175gossipingraeMemberI was watching The O’Reilly Factor on Tuesday night, and I saw this tape. The girl was CRAZY! The teacher tried to hold her hands up to defend herself from the little girl’s hits, but no matter what the teacher did, that girl would not calm down.
Also, on The O’Reilly Factor, Bill had some tapes of a Hard Copy (I think) interview with the girl’s mother. The mother claims that she is not at fault, the girl was raised right at home.
Yeah, right. Maybe if this little girl had been disciplined more, this problem wouldn’t have happened.
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