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Tue 17 Apr, 2012 02:55 pm
What do you take of this? I know you need to know all the facts, but on the surface - what do you think?
ATLANTA, Ga.—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.
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.
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.
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 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.
@Linkat,
As you say, more facts are really needed. But, judging from the facts (and allegations) presented in the story, I believe the police were justified in the steps they took. This child seems to have been unrestrainable otherwise and in imminent danger of causing harm to others as well as herself. The only problem I see is that it sets an ugly precedent. Other kids might start to 'act up' just to get the same sort of attention this child got.
@Linkat,
That must have been one hell of a tantrum.
Whatever happened to calling a kid's parent to come and pick them up? Why in the world did the police get called? That's messed up.
@boomerang,
That's what I thought too - why not call the parents - and then charge them for the damage the little monster did.
Although I do not disagree with the police - it seems extreme, but then on the surface, the kid's behaviour was extreme and they were simply restraining the child not beating her or anything.
It also sounds like the parents/family are trying to squeak out whatever compensation they can get from this - claiming (and again I'm simply going by what is presented here) that the child was put in holding cell vs. the police saying she was put elsewhere with a coke to calm her down (assuming the beverage and not the drug) not a cell.
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