Well, it’s happened again. A school principal, rather than dealing first-hand with a discipline problem at his school, opted instead to call the police. The student in this case was 6-year-old Salecia Johnson, a kindergartener! For throwing a temper tantrum, she was handcuffed, placed in the police car, and taken to the police station.
A CNN report described the girl’s behavior:
According to the police report, Johnson’s combative behavior included throwing furniture, including a small shelf which struck the principal on the leg.
The child was also observed “biting the door knob of the office and jumping on the paper shredder.”
The report stated Johnson also “attempted to break a glass frame above the shredder.”
“I noticed the damage to school property and possible assault of other students and staff,” the responding officer said in the report.
The police also noted that “when a person is put in handcuffs it’s for their safety, it’s not a punishment.” I’m sure little Salecia will remember in the years to come that those handcuffs were “not a punishment.”
What has happened to this country? When did the police become our first line of defense against 6-year-olds? When did they stop being our first line of defense against adults? (We’d rather use our guns first.) When did American adults cease being mature and responsible enough to know when to deal with a situation themselves and when to call the police?
Can’t post a ‘Like’ due to the story itself. I DO like that you posted it and presented the article to other. Thank you my friend!
This story infuriates me. Since when don’t grade schools deal with something like this in-house? Since when doesn’t the school deal with it and/or call in the parents? Since when do schools call the police on a kindergartener!? Something similar happened in Colorado not long ago and I’m still fuming about it. Can you tell?
nawwwwww cool as a cucumber heh.
am with you on this. also remember the Colorado story. wtf is about all I can muster when faced with such blatant idiocy… and LACK of teaching skills. funny, all through school -even college- there was never once police involvement due to a student’s behavior in class.
was the principal’s office closed for lunch? time out chair broken? phone lines (to parents/relatives) down? or maybe…. the teacher has no business teaching.
pass the buck. hire a lawyer. diagnose a kid with a non-existent disease.call the police on a 6 year old.
now That’s the New Math.
I’ve no idea how this situation evolved, or the one in Colorado. But I assume someone failed somewhere if the police were called in. That never happened in any of my schools, or my son’s schools, or my grankids’ school (not so far, anyway). At least the girl was in the principal’s office, so I’ll let the teacher off the hook this time.
It’s important that the school have accurate contact information – and a back up number for situations like this. The kid was out of control and to protect other kids, she was taken to the office where she continued to be disruptive while they tried 6 times to call mom – who could not be found.
Calling the cops seems a bit extreme.
Unfortunately school districts have definite policies about disruptive students due to judicial rulings and lawsuit threats. Policies often do not allow teachers or administrators to grab, hold, put their hands on students. (No hugs, no rocking in a rocking chair to calm them down, No wrapping a blanket around them and hugging them until they are in control of themselves. No putting them in a room alone to quiet down.) And if a child gets injured – even if they cause it themselves through their own violent behavior – the school will be sued. Looks like the school just wanted to put child into someone else’s care and legal responsibility. District policy may say call the cops if you can’t contact parents – and the kid is dangerous and violent
(And yes the small ones can seriously hurt adults – I have a friend who was attacked by a 2nd grader – knocked her down, jumped on her back and slammed a desk on her head. She has permanent back damage. No longer teaches. I have a friend who had an eye poked and scratched by a pre-K kid – eye so damaged, she lost most of vision out of that eye). Yes these are violent metro schools.
Making a sales call to school administrators and school librarian once, I witness a large kid start a fight in the hall – he dragged and punched 2 women teachers who tried to stop him, it took 3 men to finally get him to stop. He was taken to the principal’s office where his father was called.- Actually paged as father had refused to give a contact number on registration forms. When the father finally did return the page, he said he was too busy to come to the school and hung up. That boy sat in the VP’s office the rest of the day – sprawled back in the chair with his feet on the desk. Unfortunately the office had a glass panel facing the hall where all kids passing by could see him laugh and wave. Kids thought he was super cool.
Schools have a very difficult time – there are many many violent children.
But handcuffs and jail just sets a kid up for failure.
So what’s the plan? How should school deal with this?
Meanwhile the rest of the kids are trying to learn.(and you hope they don’t mimic this behavior…but it happens.)
No easy solutions
Big sigh from here.
Ah, I’d not heard they tried 6 times to reach the mother. Still, wouldn’t you call child services or something before you called police?
You make a good point about lawsuits. Our overly litigious fellow citizens have created a nightmare for the rest of us. I remember when my son was young, schools right and left were getting rid of playground equipment for fear they’d be sued if a child got hurt.
Those stories about your friends are frightening. My only close experience is my brother’s. He’s bilingual and taught math and science at one of Denver’s inner city high schools for a number of years. He was a dedicated teacher and loved those kids, but he burned out with all the disciplinary problems that he had to contend with. A loss for him. A much bigger loss for those kids.
I don’t have any answers. Only questions. Things have been changing for the worse for a number of years. And I don’t like where we seem to be going.
CPS is an excellent answer. They are set up for kids in trouble. A good night sleep, less caffeine and sugar, a predictable schedule, and a good run outside would help a lot of these kids. Parents are so stressed it flows over to the kids. Some of these kids get dropped at day care at 5:30 AM. Most schools serve free breakfasts here which helps. (Prenatal care is also critical for brain development)
We as a society are in big trouble here.
Great suggestion you made.
Ridiculosity defined. This is one of the most pathetic things I’ve read in awhile. A 6 year old? Really? Handcuffs? Hopefully this little girl won’t be scarred for life.
We can hope. Personally, I don’t think I’d ever forget being handcuffed and taken from school to the police station. And even if she wanted to forget, you think the other kids will? Fat chance.