What, we're arresting six year olds now?

[mahogany]

What is our society coming to? Reading this left me with a really sick feeling.


http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/opinion/09herbert.html

6-Year-Olds Under Arrest

By BOB HERBERT

When 6-year-old Desre’e Watson threw a tantrum in her kindergarten
class a couple of weeks ago she could not have known that the full
force of the law would be brought down on her and that she would be
carted off by the police as a felon.

But that’s what happened in this small, backward city in central
Florida. According to the authorities, there were no other options.

“The student became violent,” said Frank Mercurio, the no-nonsense
chief of the Avon Park police. “She was yelling, screaming - just
being uncontrollable. Defiant.”

“But she was 6,” I said.

The chief’s reply came faster than a speeding bullet: “Do you think
this is the first 6-year-old we’ve arrested?”

The child’s tantrum occurred on the morning of March 28 at the Avon
Elementary School. According to the police report, “Watson was upset
and crying and wailing and would not leave the classroom to let them
study, causing a disruption of the normal class activities.”

After a few minutes, Desre’e was, in fact, taken to another room. She
was “isolated,” the chief said. But she would not calm down. She
flailed away at the teachers who tried to control her. She pulled one
woman’s hair. She was kicking.

I asked the chief if anyone had been hurt. “Yes,” he said. At least
one woman reported “some redness.”

After 20 minutes of this “uncontrollable” behavior, the police were
called in. At the sight of the two officers, Chief Mercurio said,
Desre’e “tried to take flight.”

She went under a table. One of the police officers went after her.
Each time the officer tried to grab her to drag her out, Desre’e
would pull her legs away, the chief said.

Ultimately the child was no match for Avon Park’s finest. The cops
pulled her from under the table and handcuffed her. The officers were
not fooling around. In the eyes of the cops the 6-year-old was a
criminal, and in Avon Park she would be treated like any other felon.

There was a problem, though. The handcuffs were not manufactured with
kindergarten kids in mind. The chief explained: “You can’t handcuff
them on their wrists because their wrists are too small, so you have
to handcuff them up by their biceps.”

As I sat listening to Chief Mercurio in a spotless, air-conditioned
conference room at the Avon Park police headquarters, I had the
feeling that I had somehow stumbled into the middle of a skit on
“Saturday Night Live.” The chief seemed like the most reasonable of
men, but what was coming out of his mouth was madness.

He handed me a copy of the police report: black female. Six years
old. Thin build. Dark complexion.

Desre’e was put in the back of a patrol car and driven to the police
station. “Then,” said Chief Mercurio, “she was transported to central
booking, which is the county jail.”

The child was fingerprinted and a mug shot was taken. “Those are the
normal procedures for anyone who is arrested,” the chief said.

Desre’e was charged with battery on a school official, which is a
felony, and two misdemeanors: disruption of a school function and
resisting a law enforcement officer. After a brief stay at the county
jail, she was released to the custody of her mother.

The arrest of this child, who should have been placed in the care of
competent, comforting professionals rather than being hauled off to
jail, is part of an outlandish trend of criminalizing very young
children that has spread to many school districts and law enforcement
agencies across the country.

A highly disproportionate number of those youngsters, like Desre’e,
are black. In Baltimore last month, the police arrested, handcuffed
and hauled away a 7-year-old black boy for allegedly riding a dirt
bike on the sidewalk. The youngster was released and the mayor,
Sheila Dixon, apologized for the incident, saying the arrest was
inappropriate.

Last spring a number of civil rights organizations collaborated on a
study of disciplinary practices in Florida schools and concluded that
many of them, “like many districts in other states, have turned away
from traditional education-based disciplinary methods - such as
counseling, after-school detention, or extra homework assignments -
and are looking to the legal system to handle even the most minor
transgressions.”

Once you adopt the mindset that ordinary childhood misbehavior is
criminal behavior, it’s easy to start seeing young children as
somehow monstrous.

“Believe me when I tell you,” said Chief Mercurio, “a 6-year-old can
inflict injury to you just as much as any other person.”

Comments

[gentlemaitresse.livejournal.com]

My husband has a cousin who is now a teen. When she was six years old she threw a tantrum in school and put another little girl in the hospital. I think someone should have done something more severe.

When my mom had agricultural property in the back of a high-priced neighborhood, there was a little girl of about 8 years old who would trespass onto her property and vandalise it routinely. My mom finally called the cops one day (after having tried to talk to the girl's mother about it a few times), and everyone acted like my mom had committed a crime!

I think more and more children are behaving in a criminal manner, their parents aren't doing enough about it, and the people at the schools are at the end of their ropes.

Personally, I think ending mandatory attendance laws would do some good. Children should not feel like they can't be kicked out of school. An education should be a privilege, not a right. If you misbehave and disrupt the classroom so that other children cannot learn, you don't deserve to be there.

[gezellig-girl.livejournal.com]

Really.

And what, exactly, are those kids who "don't deserve to be there" going to do when they're removed from school? Go to jail? Get a job? Can they come to your house every day and hang out until their parents get home from work?

[gentlemaitresse.livejournal.com]

They are the responsibility of their parents, just as they were prior to mandatory attendance laws. If their parents refuse to take responsibility for them, we have agencies to take them.

What do you propose be done with violent children?

[gezellig-girl.livejournal.com]

What would "refuse to take responsibility for them" include? Needing to work every day? Should we flood the foster care system with these children who are banned from schools? Should parents give up their jobs and be supported by the state to raise these banned-from-school children?

How would that be less of a drain on economic resources, as opposed to taking "violent children" (and I haven't seen any evidence saying this child was consistently violent, although this outburst was allegedly violent) and placing them in smaller classrooms, with a more attention from teacher with a specialized and/or advanced degree?

[gentlemaitresse.livejournal.com]

When you have a child, you are taking on a job. You should be prepared for this, but you're not, you'll need to make some tough choices. There is no need to be supported by the state. Give up cable and internet! People in this country who claim to be "poor" disgust me. I've been poor. I raised five children on $30,000 a year. That's pretty poor, but it was my choice. I could have made other choices. I could have put my children into public school and gone to work myself, rather than relying solely on the income of my husband. I could have given my baby up for adoption at the age of 18, and then used good birth control (or abstained from sex).

You make choices in life, and it's not other people's responsibility to handle the consequences for you. You still haven't given any good solution of your own. You've only insulted my proposals. It's so easy to do that, isn't it?

And for the record, I never said that calling the police on this particular girl was necessarily the right thing to do. Obviously, neither of us have enough information to make that decision. But this news reporter wants to pull on our heartstrings and try to persuade us that this was the wrong decision. She may be right, but I'm saying that *something* must be done about violent children! If that something is smaller classrooms (when the public schools are already spending over $5000 per child, even here in Florida, where there is a law governing classroom size already) then at least that would be something.

Ultimately, I think parents need to be held responsible. You bring them into this world, you are responsible for their upbringing, and that includes their behavior, unless you legally give that responsibility to someone else. And the last time I saw a story like this, the parent just blamed the school and the police.

Six years old and having *violent* outbursts? Something is obviously wrong here.

[mahogany.livejournal.com]

When you have a child, you are taking on a job. You should be prepared for this, but you're not, you'll need to make some tough choices. There is no need to be supported by the state.

This is all completely true; however, many people aren't, and (and here's where you see my socialist leanings coming out), I feel strongly that ideally we as a society should do what we can to provide the best possible education and educational environment for all children - particuarly those whose parents are falling short of their responsibilities. If we figure out ways to offset the amount of time these children spend in a poor home environment, if we figure out ways to ensure that these children have positive role models and dependable people to turn to in times of need, decent food, decent education, and a safe space to play and be kids, we're giving them a fighting chance. In addition to smaller class sizes, and additional specialized resources to accomodate learning and behaviour challenges, I would like to see hot food programs (breakfast, lunch, and yes, even supper if necessary) providing wholesome nutritious food available to all children, and also supervised, free after school sports/recreation programs (not just school team stuff). One of my former clients was involved in establishing a recreation program that gave kids a place to hang out and stuff to do until 8:00 at night, in partnership with some large corporations for an inner city school, and the results were amazing. The reduction in behaviour related problems and gang violence (we're talking about older kids here) was astounding, and the program was just in its infancy at the time.

I'm not ignoring the fact that people when people make their beds they should lie in them, I guess I lean more toward the attitude that kids deserve a fighting chance - they're innocent in this whole process, and many of them will succumb to their circumstances unless they're helped. With the proper environment and encouragement, many of them can and will break the negative cycles that have trapped their parents.

[gezellig-girl.livejournal.com]

Forget it. I can see from your profile you're a Libertarian. I might as well go shout into the wind. Consider yourself to have won the argument.

[gentlemaitresse.livejournal.com]

How very liberated and open-minded of you.

[mahogany.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think ending mandatory attendance laws would do some good. Children should not feel like they can't be kicked out of school. An education should be a privilege, not a right. If you misbehave and disrupt the classroom so that other children cannot learn, you don't deserve to be there.

Sorry for the earlier reply. I started to reply, and then it was time to do some school work etc..., and well, you know how it goes. I suspect on of the kids attacked the computer while I was in the shower :-)

I'd have to disagree with you on this particular point. I think that every child has the right to a basic education. When it comes to higher education, I would agree that it's a privilege that should be earned through hard work etc., but a basic education (meeting certain standards of literacy and numeracy) is vital to being able to function in our society. How that education is delivered is another matter. Perhaps her needs would be better served in a different school, different learning environment etc.

corporal punishment?

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

I think perhaps one side of it is that
the schools can not now use corporal
punishment, and of course in some ways
that is very good but in the old days it
worked and no police were called and unless
(but no doubt there were cases)the teacher
were him or herself an out of control person
I to not think there was any lasting trauma.
dont know if british public schools still use?
I recall in phys ed that the teacher would take
an offender to a little room off the gym say
drop your trousers and wap on the behind
a couple times, it was of course not a pleasant
sort of situation, happened to me once, off
and on to about everyone ... in classes some
rapped knuckles with a ruler.

I am not sure that was a better or worse way
but I am guessing part of the dilemna of schools
is that they are not allowed to do what they
then ask the police,at risk of real trauma,
to do.

Re: corporal punishment?

[gentlemaitresse.livejournal.com]

I disagree with strangers hitting a child. I don't care if that stranger does have the title of "teacher". What gives anyone the right to hit someone else, especially someone smaller?

I think it is the job of police to deal with violent offenders, and not the job of teachers to do so.

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

that may well be ,I do not disagree
but just had the thought that the
absence of corporal punishment now
may be in the background of the
story about calling police which
our friend posted here.

[gentlemaitresse.livejournal.com]

I think you may be confusing correlation with causation.

"We had corporal punishment back then, and we didn't have these problems, so corporal punishment must have prevented these problems, and the lack of corporal punishment causes these problems."

That's not necessarily true, though. There are many things different today from years gone by. Society as a whole has changed a great deal just in the past twenty years. If we simply use correlation to explain this problem, we could just as easily blame it on the fact that children today drink too much soda, or play video games, or watch too much television.

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

I did not say anything was necessarily
anything please, I am not quite an idiot...
I would not say "must have"
I was just raising a discussion point
or point for consideration...you can
be entirely right etc although in these
things it is my sense that rarely is something
entirely right or wrong...
again it occured to me to consider this
together with that.
best regard
+Seraphim

Re: corporal punishment?

[mahogany.livejournal.com]

Those days weren't so old. Growing up, the strap was used on some kids, but I don't recall it ever being used on a child this young - it was used more in upper elementary/junior high. If I recall correctly (there weren't too many kids that were ever strapped, and it wasn't generally something that happened more than once), it was the last there was a procedure before explusion that the school went through, that included the parents, so everyone was on board with what was going to happen. I don't know if they do it anymore - I doubt it.

But I digress. I guess what I find so alarming about this whole thing is the complete lack of perspective on the part of the school. This child was having a full-blown meltdown, and at that point, the girl was likely extremely distress. Let's just assume for arguments sake that I believed in corporal punishment (I'm actually against it, but for ease, let's pretend I'm not), IMO, this wouldn't be the kind of situation that would call for its use. I vaguely remember kids throwing some pretty bad tantrums when I was in school. I think you're right, I might happens more often now, or perhaps more violently now, but I think teachers generally either removed the kids from the classroom, or had the principal remove the kids, and the matter was generally de-escalated outside of the classroom, so I'm not sure what methods were used, but the kids were usually fine when they returned to the classroom later that day or the next day.

agreed

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

I agree that this case is egregious
and obviously using corporal punishment on
the little girl would not have been the
answer but I guess I was rambling to the thought
that a lot of teachers and school authorities
dont know quite what to do. I know if I were
teaching I would be scared but I know that
because when I taught high school in Japan
I was intimidated by a lot of the classes
(I was a young man of 25 with classes of 60
students in a low level academic high school
where most had no motivation to learn english
conversation) about all I acheived was to keep
doggedly coming to school every day in spite
of my fear for two years, not every class,
the ones preparing for college were decent...

I found in the end that I am a good teacher of
grad students. as to discipline I am a little
like jean paul sartre said of himself in
the army "I could never give an order without
smiling or making people smile."

these off topic memoirs
yours
+Seraphim
*many things in society trouble me and certainly
agree this was a meltdown.

[tarapaul.livejournal.com]

I read about this incident after it happened, and was horrified.
There are MANY ways to handle an out of control child and most don't involve arrest, and potentially setting the child up to live a self fulfilling prophecy... arrested at 6, a criminal, humiliated... I don't see a child growing past that event.

[gentlemaitresse.livejournal.com]

You definitely make a good point.

What other solutions can you propose, that would actually help the child (assuming this is an ongoing behavior problem)?

[tracied.livejournal.com]

IAWTC

That will be so firmly imrinted on her brain. She will react one of two ways, continue to get more and more out of control because she feels like she is a bad person, and no one is helping her or trying to figure out what the underlying problem is. Or, she will bottle it up, because she is so traumatized by what has happened that she will have the appearance of compliance (also reinforcing the police postion, because it "wors"), but internally will be bearing some very large scars. And if something has happened to her in the form of some kind of trauma, it will not get dealt with because she has learned there is no safe place for her to ask or help (and at 6, a tantrum may be the way she asks).

[schneckerock.livejournal.com]

huh. that is like the next town over from where my in-laws live, and where my husband lived for a good part of his youth. he always told me florida public schools sucked, I didn't realize it was that bad! no wonder they homeschooled.

[gezellig-girl.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised it hasn't happened before, honestly.

For starters, it's Florida, and I firmly believe almost the entire state borders on retarded. With no state income tax and a large population of retirees, the schools in Florida are constantly underfunded, simply because there's little money, and the money that's there isn't used for schools. Living in Florida is what made me look seriously at homeschooling for the first time.

Plus, check out Avon Park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avon_Park) — almost half the population under 18 lives below the poverty line. I doubt the teachers there are well-paid or have teacher aides and/or specialists on hand or are offered the opportunity to take classes/workshops to learn how to handle a kid's tantrum like that.

It's just... sad. It's a deeply fucked-up, broken educational system that needs to be torn down and built again from scratch.

[gentlemaitresse.livejournal.com]

With no state income tax and a large population of retirees, the schools in Florida are constantly underfunded, simply because there's little money

Do a little research into property taxes and tourism before you etch this in stone.

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

It depends on *where* in Florida. It's a pretty big state.

Desperate times...

[mahogany.livejournal.com]

You're dead on, the system is horribly broken.

Sometimes the non-ideal options are better than reality. I honestly believe that there is a role for corporate sponsorship in the school system. An incident like is just so horrific (especially since according to the police chief, it's not the first time), that it speaks to a much larger, much deeper problem.

Clearly, the instructors in this school lack the know how, and/or the resources to properly help these children. And the sad reality is that without money, the will never have the resources to be able to turn things around.

I think we (and I'll include Canada here because there are some areas where our education is seriously underfunded), seriously need to start reaching out, and considering business partners in education. At what price? Well, we all know that corporate sponsorship comes with some pretty huge strings attached, but the alternative is simply too ugly to ignore alternative sources of funding.

[machy.livejournal.com]

My initial response to this is that it must be a joke! I can not believe this crap. I seriously can't.

[gentlemaitresse.livejournal.com]

I doubt you'd raise a child who was throwing violent tantrums in a public school. ;-)

[mahogany.livejournal.com]

I hear you - though personally I was thinking more along the lines of age 12.

And speaking of any child of yours, was that just an April 1, prank, or are congratulations in order?

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

Every one of the 50 states is different, but I know that in California there are juvenile authorities rather than just the adult-oriented police.

She sounds like she needed medical/psychiactric treatment rather than the police station.

F everybody's Y, I'm wholesale against corporal punishment for children, unless it's to reinforce that they shouldn't do something dangerous, e.g. run into the street, stick a fork into an outlet, etc.

[mahogany.livejournal.com]

I'm curious - does those authorities deal with children as young as this? Do they also handcuff them, and fingerprint them?

She sounds like she needed medical/psychiactric treatment rather than the police station

Exactly!

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Procedures in all 50 states are different.

[tracied.livejournal.com]

This has left me feeling sick to my stomach and made me sob. There is just no way in hell that this would go by me without a fight if it were my child. A tantrum like that speaks of serious emotional trauma or at the very least some kind of family issue. How do they know that the child wasn't molested/raped or beaten? How do they know that she isn't starving because she had no breakfast or lunch, and her blood sugar hasn't plummeted to a point where she is out of control? I mean give me a break. She is 6 years old. At 6 NO child has the concept of appropriate problem solving or self control. That is what we as parents/teachers/clergy are supposed to be teaching them. I know first hand as does mahogany and tarapaul that a child in the midst of that kind of tantrum cannot be reached, until they get to the point of wearing themselves out and being in a safe place for them to calm themselves down. They are in a hyper focused state that you can't just stop them from, just like that.

[mahogany.livejournal.com]

If it were my kid, there would be media involved, letters to the mayor, the minister of education, the superintendant, and the premier. I would be in my MLA's office (he happens to be right across the street) raising a huge stink. I would be demading an both a public and personal apology from the policy chief, and that's just to start.

[jodie-anna.livejournal.com]

That is the craziest thing I have heard in a long time - makes me want to throw up.

[catdraco.livejournal.com]

That's an utterly inappropriate response.

I do understand quite well how difficult a troubled child can be to manage, especially if s/he is violent as well. I don't mean to make light of what could have been an extremely difficult situation for teachers. But a six year old is a six year old, and no six year old is a criminal. Even under British law, which I think is about the strictest I know of in this respect, legally a child is not considered capable of forming criminal intent under the age of 8.

If the child is really acting out that badly, she needs psychiatric or medical help. She does not need the humiliation of being cuffed and treated as a criminal, nor does she need to be 'scared straight'.

[abigailvr.livejournal.com]

How awful. I think your comment about hot food programs that include nutritious foods are a key. It's amazing to me how few people realize just how closely nutrition and behavior are connected. I'm not saying that a kid who eats nutritiously never has a tantrum, of course.

[rillifane.livejournal.com]

"Once you adopt the mindset that ordinary childhood misbehavior is
criminal behavior"

They probably decided that at the same time they decided that kids who are bored with school should labeled mentally ill and medicated.

[mahogany.livejournal.com]

It's certainly a similar mindset, isn't it?

[shofarot.livejournal.com]

The next thing on the list will be a show called, "Kids on Cops". America has become so scared of everything, that it has even become scared of its own children.

...and the race issue in The South, don't even get me started.

[mahogany.livejournal.com]

...and the race issue in The South, don't even get me started.

Yeah, I was pretty incensed about the race element too.

[shofarot.livejournal.com]

How are you doing? From your posts I can tell you've been going through a rough spot lately. Just to let you know that I'm around should you need someone to talk to.