[Pesqueeb]

Police in Georgia handcuffed a kindergartner with her arms behind her back after the girl threw a tantrum and the police chief defended the action as a safety measure.

The girl's family demanded Tuesday that their central Georgia city change policy so that other children aren't treated the same way. They say the child was shaken up by the ordeal.

While it's unusual to see a young child handcuffed in school, it's not unheard of. School officials around the nation have wrestled with the issue of when it's appropriate to call police on a student.

Salecia Johnson, 6, was accused of tearing items off the walls and throwing books and toys in an outburst Friday at Creekside Elementary School in Milledgeville, according to a police report.

Police said a small shelf thrown by the child struck the principal in the leg during the fracas. The child also jumped on a paper shredder and tried to break a glass frame, the police report states.

The school called police. When an officer tried to calm the child in the principal's office, she resisted, police say. She "was restrained by placing her hands behind her back and handcuffed," a police report states.

A juvenile complaint was filed, accusing the girl of simple battery and damage to property.

The police department's policy is to handcuff people when they are taken to the police station, regardless of their age, interim Police Chief Dray Swicord said.

"The reason we handcuff detainees is for the safety of themselves as well as the officer," he said Tuesday.

The girl's aunt, Candace Ruff, went with the child's mother to pick her up from the police station. She said Salecia had been in a holding cell and complained about the handcuffs.

"She said they were really tight. She said they really hurt her wrists," Ruff said. "She was so shaken up when we went there to pick her up."

The police chief said the girl was taken to the police department's squad room, not a holding cell, and officers there tried to calm her and gave her a Coke.

Officials at Creekside Elementary did not immediately return calls Tuesday.

The girl was suspended and can't return to school until August, her mother, Constance Ruff, told WMAZ-TV, which first reported the story.

"We would not like to see this happen to another child, because it's horrifying. It's devastating," her aunt told The Associated Press.

Elsewhere in the U.S., incidents involving students, police and handcuffs have raised difficult questions for educators, parents and policymakers.

In Florida, the use of police in schools came up several years ago when officers arrested a kindergartner who threw a tantrum during a jelly bean-counting contest. Since then, the overall number of student arrests in Florida has declined, but those for minor offenses have increased on a percentage basis. A bill was proposed this year to restrict police from arresting kids for misdemeanors or other acts that do not pose serious safety threats.

Annette Montano, a mother in Albuquerque, N.M., said her 13-year-old son was arrested last year after burping in gym class. The tension between him and school officials led to several more run-ins, including a strip search after he was accused of selling drugs, she said.

Finally, she said, she pulled him from the school in November. It took her three months to get him placed elsewhere.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/17/police-handcuff-georgia-kindergartner-for-tantrum/?test=latestnews

Comment on FB from a guy I went to high school with who is now a Pastor in a baptist church

Originally posted by douchenozzle:usually the rhetorical question accompaining a story like this is: would you let them do this to your kid? And to all of my lefty friends, my answer is: YES ... you betcha!

Discuss.

 

[jonKranked]

re: that comment: all that means to me is that guy isn't sure if its even his kid in the first place

 

[X3pilot]

If the principals had paddles like they did when I was in elementary school, there would be no need for cops and handcuffs. Probably wouldn't be a lot of tantrums, either.

 

[stevew]

my brothers youngest is going to fvck sh!t up when he gets to pre school.

 

[Pesqueeb]

In my mind, the real story here is that this school and it's administration were incapable of handling a kindergartners temper tantrum. WTF is that school going to do if they ever get an irate parent, or god forbid some gun wielding nut job (it is Georgia after all) in the school? Obviously the child's behavior is out of bounds, but its not like some kid has never lost their mind before, except at this school apparently.

 

[$tinkle]

If the principals had paddles like they did when I was in elementary school, there would be no need for cops and handcuffs. Probably wouldn't be a lot of tantrums, either.

/thread

right up there with the first time i had sex is my only memory of taking a paddle to the hind parts. i honestly think being rawdogged at a motorhead concert would have been more pleasant

 

[Beef Supreme]

I'm surprised they didn't taze her.

Between this and the hot problems post, I'm not sure I want to live on this planet anymore.

 

[Pesqueeb]

From another acquaintance, coincidentally also a member of (a separate) church hierarchy :

On a side note, Milledgeville is also the site of the state hospital for the insane. There may be more at wotrk here than any news organization can get to. There certainly is more than any Fox station would care to investigate.

 

[stevew]

or god forbid some gun wielding nut job (it is Georgia after all)

so they aren't as crazy as colorado...columbine..... or virginia....va tech shooting?

 

[Pesqueeb]

so they aren't as crazy as colorado...columbine..... or virginia....va tech shooting?

Its about proportions mostly.

 

[stevew]

Its about proportions mostly.

or farm animal fvcking...

 

[JohnE]

Or simply some parents teaching their kids right from wrong...I lived in fear of fvcking up in school. My Pops was a teacher, and if/when he heard I had gotten into it with a teacher at my school, time as I knew would come to an end. A nasty, one sided end. That hurt. Alot.

 

[Westy]

Nothing a nightstick to the back of the neck couldn't take care of.

 

[JohnE]

...or a good Tazing...