beware of felony tantrums

[rkt]

I have several posts-in-waiting.

and the this one came along, and my head hurts...

Kindergartner Charged With Felony Tantrum
By Bonnie Goldstein
Wednesday, April 11, 2007, at 5:48 PM


Avon Park , Fla., is a zero-tolerance kind of place.

On March 28, Desre'e Watson, a 6-year-old kindergarten student at Avon Elementary School, had a bad morning. She cried. She wailed. She kicked. She scratched. She hit a teacher. That's what the police say, anyway.

The police? That's right. To subdue the unruly kindergartner, school officials phoned Avon Park's police department committed to enhancing the 'Quality of Life' of the community When the cops arrived, young Desre'e attempted to resist arrest by crawling under a table. But Avon Park's finest pulled her" out, cuffed her, put her in a police cruiser, drove her to the county jail, and charged this 50-pound menace with a felony and two misdemeanors. The police report is below.*

"When there is an outburst of violence," Police Chief Frank Mercurio told a local news station, "we have a duty to protect and make that school a safe environment for the students, staff and faculty. That's why, at this point, the person was arrested regardless what the age." Let's hope his message gets across to those brats in the neonatal wards.





http://www.slate.com/id/2164004/entry/0

x-posted

Comments

[kornrowchic.livejournal.com]

Let's hope his message gets across to those brats in the neonatal wards.

lol....that's pretty sad. actually this is nothing new. they used to call the police on students who got unruly when i was in junior high which i still think is too young. we all thought it was a racially fueled attack and that such a thing would never take place in a school where the students were privileged. the mother would be called or the school psychologist maybe but not this. i wonder what the student's ethnicity was. either way it's pretty fuckin ridiculous and a true testament to the pd having no fucking clue what their job is anymore.

[beginnings-end.livejournal.com]

That's a little for my over-taxed (literally...when's April 18 getting here) little mind to process. I didn't check the link though, did they let the kid go and after how long? That's so wrong.

[thinlikestick.livejournal.com]

handcuffs, huh? when dealing with a six year old throwing a temper tantrum, i usually go with hugs, tickling, and/or a lollipop. when really frustrated, i might even say, "okay, but i need you to use your words to tell me what's going on, or i won't know how to help you." obviously, i know nothing about how to handle children. handcuff 'em and throw 'em in the back of a police car - of course that's the best way to calm down an upset child - it's so obvious now!

[rkt.livejournal.com]

according to the report, she's black.
and avon park is southern florida.

go figure.

[rkt.livejournal.com]

its fucked.
i guess she was released to her mother, but i dont know what's happening with the actual charges.

[rkt.livejournal.com]

...y'know?

i've had slightly older kids - who were on medication - be threatened by child protecion services to have the police called.... and on one occasion they even were called... but so was EMS.... talk about child hood trauma.

I was almost arrested once...

[kaygigi.livejournal.com]

Thank Gd I'm not a kindergartener these days. Cause I was suspended as a kindergartener, and I think that now maybe they would've arrested me.
See, each week, we had to do stretches with this kinesthesiologist lady. I was a very poorly developed little five year old, and I hated that everyone else could touch their toes but me (a physical feat I did not accomplish until I was 14). One day she came when we were doing math. I was doing second grade math in kindergarten, so I had my own special work sheet. When that bitch came and tried to make me stop doing math so I could NOT touch my toes like everyone else, I folded the sheet into an airplane and threw it at her. It hit her smack in the eye.
So I was sent to the principal's office, where the vice principal squatted down to deal with the temper-tantrumed tot (me), as mentioned by someone else above as a strategy for dealing with a five/six year old. Instead, I pushed him over, knowing he was off balance.

Yeah, so I got pink slipped and had to sit all day in a room by myself. Thankfully it was a half-day program. I probably preferred it; at least I didn't have to touch my toes. But now that would be assault of a school official, I"m sure. Along with menacing a teacher with a weapon, aka, a paper airplane.

It's one thing to arrest high schoolers for fighting on school property, and it's one thing, really, to have staff trained in restraining a kid properly so that they don't harm themselves or others, but arresting a six year old? C'mon.

[allinwonderland.livejournal.com]

Its crazy that they will arrest kindergartners. One school I worked at called the police and EMT on a kid who was making suicidal gestures at the front of his second grade classroom.

As a teacher I had a kid call me a "Fucking lying bitch" and threaten to hit me, did anything happen nope. And don't get me started on the kid that stole my cell phone.

And in fine ol' Va, I witnessed a fight while I was sitting outside eating lunch. Two guys were fighting and then one guy punched out a classroom window then used a big shard of glass to cut the other kid. Did they get arrested-no. Crazy shit.

It totally depends on how fucked up or burnt out the principal is.

[kameyosekmoon.livejournal.com]

tThe judicial system is fucked up...especially here in the south. I'm almost certain if a little white girl behaved the same way she would have been treated differently. If this girl was misbehaving to the extent that teachers couldn't calm her down why was the schools first response to call the police and not the girls parents? Urrrggghhh!