A school resource officer in Kentucky handcuffed a crying third-grader with disabilities last year, according to a new video released by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The video accompanies a federal lawsuit filed Monday by lawyers on behalf of two children against the Kenton County Sheriff’s Office in Covington, Kentucky. The complaint alleges that a school resource officer unlawfully handcuffed an 8-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl, both of whom have disabilities, in the fall of 2014.
“As a result of being subjected to unnecessary and excessive handcuffing, Plaintiffs experienced pain, fear, and emotional trauma, and an exacerbation of their disabilities,” the lawsuit reads. The complaint alleges violations of the U.S. Constitution and Americans with Disabilities Act.
Colonel Pat Morgan, a spokesman for the Kenton County Sheriff’s Office, told The Huffington Post that he was waiting for their attorneys to review the lawsuit before providing comment.
In the video, the boy, who allegedly has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and a history of trauma, is shown crying as an officer handcuffs his biceps behind his back. The ACLU claimed that he was placed in handcuffs for 15 minutes because of behavior related to his disabilities.
In the video, the officer tells the boy, “You don’t get to swing at me like that.” As he shackles the third-grader, who weighs about 50 pounds, the boy starts to cry and says that the officer is hurting him.
The use of shackles on youth in courtrooms, as well as in schools and treatment centers, is controversial. At least 100,000 children are shackled in the U.S. every year, David Shapiro, a campaign manager at the Campaign Against Indiscriminate Juvenile Shackling, told Mother Jones.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office reported in 2009 that it found hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and death related to the use of shackles and seclusion on school children over a two-decade period. The office identified at least 20 allegations that involved restraints and resulted in death.
They noted the case of a 7-year-old girl who died at a private treatment center after being restrained face-down on the floor for hours. “The staff was allegedly unaware she had stopped breathing until they rolled her limp body over and discovered she had begun to turn blue,” the GAO wrote.
To play Devil’s Advocate, since the 1970s liberal activist courts have forced American schools to put every manner of shrieking mental defective in classrooms with normal children. It’s called “mainstreaming.” Here’s the Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstreaming_%28education%29
…which mysteriously fails to mention how often “students who have special needs” rape and rob their classmates or attempt to shank the teacher, or disrupt the classroom in a thousand lesser ways. The teachers’ unions love the practice because it allows them to demand additional “teachers’ aides” in every classroom to wrestle little Timmy into and out of the Hannibal Lechter muzzle-straitjacket-and-handcart setup daily, all of whom are highly paid and pay dues to the NEA. That it’s difficult for the other kids in the room to learn their multiplication tables when little Timmy is trying to jam a sharpened pencil into a classmate’s eye socket matters not one iota to them.
Much will be made of the child’s age. I predict that nothing of substance will be posted about his history or behavior.
If a cop handcuffed a third grader, it may be that this was highly appropriate. I’m not saying it was, but my first reaction is to wonder what really happened. The newsmedia is always lying. No exceptions.
Very good point and well said. The media is a bunch of drama queens trying to sell a product any way they can. And many times in my opinion they either outright lie or omit the truth. they do not want us to hear the whole truth or it may not fit in to their agenda.
Many blast Faux news but I say they are all the same including the local news and I refuse to watch any of them.
When I read a article on line I can tell how it is written if they have a agenda or just reporting. And the comments that are moderated they do not like.
Good information on the mainstreaming……..