5 year olds handcuffed??

[stormy]

I am really confused about the situation. I have seen five year olds and younger children having tantrums in stores, assaulting parents and staff. I have seen children act out at Chucky Cheese because they don’t want to go home. Their little hands grabbing around objects trying to steady themselves against their parent’s attempts to bring them home. I have never seen any store security or police officers handcuff those children.

While I was a graduate student teaching a college chemistry lab class, one of my students started cussing and throwing things around. After seeing the students move away from him, I instructed the class to leave the room and asked one of the students to contact the head of the chemistry lab department. I tried to reason with the young man, as he started throwing bottles of acid and other potentially dangerous items. I was able to get him calm for a few minutes. When the head of the department came into the room, the young man went ballistic again. Campus security and the police were called. We formed a human barricade to stop him from having access to the chemicals. He started throwing chairs and desks. We all watched. Someone looked through his medical files and recognized that he was bipolar. They sent in counselors to help him and encourage him to leave the room. Situation was resolved. He was not placed in handcuffs. This incident occurred in 1998, less than 10 years ago.

The above case clearly warranted handcuffs an adult male in the vicinity of hazardous chemicals putting himself and the whole building in danger. A kindergartener throwing a tantrum and acting out in a room with a cameraman and 2 teachers gets handcuffs. I don’t agree.

Thank God Helen Keller was not born in this day and age. She surely would have been incarcerated from her abuse of Anne Sullivan, her teacher or perhaps heavily sedated with drugs so that no one would have to be bothered with her. Maybe she would not have to worry because she was not a minority.

What is your opinion about what happened to the 5 year old Florida child that was handcuffed?

[Steven Barnes]

I think it is an overreaction on the part of the police, and about 30% more likely to have happened because of the racial difference. I'm not saying that's what it was, but one cannot discount the Latasha Harlins effect. For the unaware, that was the black teenaged girl who was shot in the back of the head by a Korean grocer. Found guilty of the crime, she was fined a couple hundred bucks and set free. Abominable--either say "not guilty" or put the pregnant dog away. It is impossible for me to believe that the race of the judge (white) and the girl (black) didn't have something to do with this--the judgement of the girl's social worth. Similarly, the five-year-old MAY have been treated the same way if she was little and blonde...but I have a hard time believing it would be as likely. But then, we all know what a cynic I am.

[marylahree]

I am not aware of the full details of either of these happenings. Nevertheless it sickens me to hear that a five-year-old was handcuffed, and that a fifteen-year-old was shot in the back of the head. Our society does seem, in more recent years, to hold children more accountable than adults. My own son has severe learning disabilities, a part of which is poor impulse control. About ten years ago he was "arrested" at school - after the situation was resolved - after I, his parent, had left. The arresting probation officer claimed that my son threatened the Principal with a knife (that my son didn't even possess.). The Principal claimed no knowledge of the supposed threat, or that my son had been taken from the school. It was just that my son became nervous on that day, his first day at a new school.

When I went to see my son at a juvenile detention center there was a huge knot on the back of his head. He told me that the probation officer had rammed his head through the window of a cruiser after handcuffing him. I was furious, but Johnny Law had physical possession of my son. I held my temper out of fear that my son would suffer further.

Three days later that probation officer smiled at me as he told the judge that my son had offered no resistance and had obeyed while in the detention center. That 'confession' was on court tape, I realized. So I took my son to the hospital immediately after his release and his "minor head injury", days after the fact, was documented. I used it as an absence excuse for school, fully aware that it could only help substantiate my son's claim if the probation officer attempted future abuse.

I have absolute respect for the many wonderful teachers in public school systems. But I cannot have respect for a system in which public servants become (abusive) "authorities" over both children and parents.

Alright, I've gone a bit astray. My point is, whatever happened to an old fashioned spanking, (administered by loving parent), rather than extremes like handcuffing, if the behavior is truely awful enough to warrant discipline. Lord, we're talking about children. It's acceptable to essentially get away with shooting a child?

[Steven Barnes]

Clearly, the judge felt the Korean grocer was borderline justified. Such a slap on the wrist was horrible, and helped trigger the L.A. riots.

[marylahree]

I feel as if I've been living in isolation, having never heard of that incident before now. And well, I do live in God's country, Ohio. Still, it is a sad day that there can be any borderline justification for shooting a child. Was the child shoplifting? Did she appear older than her age? Act out in any violent manner that would have left the grocer in fear of being harmed? I'm trying to imagine the circumstances under which the grocer would shoot her.

[Steven Barnes]

Latasha Harlins was accused of stealing a soft drink (I believe). She and the grocer got into a shouting and shoving match at the checkout. The girl left, threatening to return later and do the grocer harm. The grocer pulled out the gun and shot the girl in the back of the head. That, I believe, is pretty much the way things happened.

[marylahree]

That leaves an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach. For such a young girl to die over a stupid soda! If, in the course of arguing, the teen really did make such a threat, why, I wonder, didn't the grocer just phone the police. Yes, the murder and the slap on the grocer's hand do appear to reek of prejudice. Additionally, I think it's foolish that society has taken on the notion that youths ought to be THAT accountable for their actions. How easily we forget that we are dealing with minds that are still in the process of developing, and with youngsters who lack the experience and even the vocabulary to assert themselves properly in the adult world. Small wonder they sometimes act out. I don't know whether that young girl actually attempted to steal the soda. But if a kid is that thirsty and perhaps cannot pay, why not just let them have the drink? Whatever happened to random acts of kindness? I know, sounds good in theory .... but.....