Police handcuff 6 yr old at school

[LittleD]

Spinoff of another thread about temper tantrums being considered a mental illness.

This little girl threw a major temper tantrum, was destroying school property and was being violent, so they called the police.

Now, the school hasn't responded to comments, but I am wondering if this isn't the first time. Cuz really, why wouldn't they have called the parents to come and get her? I'm sure the police didn't rush right over, so the parents may have been able to get there faster. It would be my guess maybe they have had this problem before and the parents were no help?

Maybe they had to call police so they can file an insurance claim?

Discuss!

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/police-handcuff-6-year-old-girl-after-she-throws-temper-tantrum-at-school/

[Unregistered]

Its clear that its the parents fault. that girl must have been out right out of control and worse scared her classmates . can you imagine a 6 Yr old throwing and destroying stuff. I have dealt with 3 and 4 yr olds who would throw thing across the room when they had tantrums, it was not SAFE for the others in the same room. I'm glad the school called police. this schould be a wake up call for the little girl and her parents.

[MarinaVanessa]

Finding out whether this was the first time or not would be very important information. Even from what I read in the article already it said that the 6yo was tearing things off of the wall, throwing toys and books and toppling furniture (a small shelf) which fell and hit a teachers leg.

What else is there to do in a world where teachers can't restrain the child or pick them up to remove them without being looked down on? What are they supposed to do with a child that poses a possible threat to the other kids? What if a toy or book hit one of the kids and seriously injured them? What if she had toppled a bigger piece of furniture and seriously hurt someone?

The article says that the police arrived and tried to calm her down and she resisted so they handcuffed her. I don't know what "resisted" means but I am inclined to believe that she continued to pull things down from walls or throw things and might have even pushed or tried to hit the adults. Police are always wary about looking bad to the media and the public so why would they hancuff her unless is was absolutely necessary?

I don't know that taking her to the station was necessary, I would think that just calling the parent and having the child picked up would be enough but maybe it's protocol? Maybe once someone is handcuffed they have to be taken to the police station? I don't know how that works.

If I were this child's parent I know that I would be angry and upset but not at the police and deffinetely not at the school. I would be upset at my child and I would be embarrassed. 6 years old is old enough to know that what she was doing wasn't right, if my child can't distinguish this either I failed as a parent or there could be other underlaying factors which led to this behavior. Something similar to this happened to me with my DD when she was in pre-school (4 years old) and although they didn't call the police the teachers had to wall my DD away from the other kids (with their bodies) and I was called. I set up immediate intervention because I realized that this is a PROBLEM and as a parent is MY RESPONSIBILITY to take action, not place blame. We did later find out she has ADHD with impulse control problem behavior but I took the necessary steps to get her help. I'm tired of hearing these stories and the parents blame someone else when there is no blame to place ... just help to find.

[Country Kids]

Big question-what is a provider suppose to do if this happens in a childcare? If we aren't to hold/restrain a child, what should we do?

[MarinaVanessa]

Big question-what is a provider suppose to do if this happens in a childcare? If we aren't to hold/restrain a child, what should we do?

Good question ... I don't know that I would call the police but I would have definetely called the parent to get their child. I know that all I can do is block a child with my body from getting past me (walling the child in). But even this is tricky. I can only be stationary and hold my arm out. If the child presses against my body in an effort to get past me I can't move but I'm not holding anyone down. The child must be free to back away and move. I can only stay there like that even if the child is agressive against me while I can try to calm the child down.

In a school atmosphere I think it's different. In my opinion theres more chance of liability and being sued so schools call the police (or may even have an on duty police officer on campus at all times) so that the police can deal with it so there is an official report.

[Country Kids]

Good question ... I don't know that I would call the police but I would have definetely called the parent to get their child.

In a school atmosphere I think it's different. In my opinion theres more chance of liability and being sued so schools call the police (or may even have an on duty police officer on campus at all times) so that the police can deal with it so there is an official report.

In the meantime though, a child could potentially destroy your house, hurt children, themselves, you while your waiting for parents! If you restrain the child though, the parents are going to sue you and turn you into liscensing!

[MarinaVanessa]

In the meantime though, a child could potentially destroy your house, hurt children, themselves, you while your waiting for parents! If you restrain the child though, the parents are going to sue you and turn you into liscensing!

Exactly ... because we aren't able to do anything else.

[Bookworm]

Does anyone know the reason for the tantrum? I don't want to justify her actions, I'm just curious.

[Hunni Bee]

Big question-what is a provider suppose to do if this happens in a childcare? If we aren't to hold/restrain a child, what should we do?

This was my EXACT thought when I saw this, but I didn't post because I didn't want to start another war....

Everyone says "oh when the child gets out of control, call the parents". Okay and once you do that, what do you do for the 20-30 minutes it takes while the parent makes their way? Let the child destroy your house/school and hurt you, themselves and the other children?

Not saying that I think having the child handcuffed was the best choice, but what do you do? I've had completely out-of-control, violent kids and was all alone in a building, parents unreachable....and had to restrain them to keep them from hurting themselves or others, all the while getting bit, scratched etc. I had no other options and was ignorant of the dangers of restraining children. (Horrible previous job, long story.)

If I could have called the police in those moments, I may have. There really, really needs to be more training for us on how to handle out-of-control children, and not just random seminars that we have to pay hundreds of dollars for. Especially if they plan to categorize tantrums as mental disorders.