5 Year old Girl Arrested

That poor little girl is going to grow up thinking that she can do anything she wants just because an incompetant parent wanted to be her best friend instead of a parent.

That attitude probably has a lot to do with why she pitched a fit in the first place.....

I'm in agreement with you.  When I first read it I thought that cuffing her and putting her in the back of a patrol vehicle was a bit much (oh, and some places do still call them squad cars)....but how else were they supposed to restrain her without hurting her (and having the mother sue for assault or inappropriate contact?)?

Kids have to learn that there are consequences to their actions.....but if the parents behave like this mother has/is, the little girl in question isn't going to learn how to do that. 

I'm in agreement with you. When I first read it I thought that cuffing her and putting her in the back of a patrol vehicle was a bit much (oh, and some places do still call them squad cars)....but how else were they supposed to restrain her without hurting her (and having the mother sue for assault or inappropriate contact?)?

I know,w hen I saw the headline, at first I was kind of shocked.  I figured with the zero tolerance, she had brought a knife to school or something.  But then when I got to the last part, I was outraged!

Even if the motehr did not learn a lesson, I hope the little girl did.  It appears that is the only way she is going to learn, and hopefully before she is 18 and the next time she gets arrested, it will be for real.

"authoritarian figures"
I think you used the wrong terminology. Maybe. Sure you can take the position that there was an assault on a teacher, principal, whoever, but let us keep things realistic. A kick in the shin from a 5 year old. Handcuffs? Let's analyze the situation for a moment.
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A girl in a classroom (kindergarten) was throwing books (not one book but more books) and then moved on to boxes. The teacher tries to stop the 5 year old girl and gets incapacitated when kicked in the shin by the 5 year old kindergarten toddler. While the teacher is knocked out/incapacitated/frozen in fear/unable to move, the little 5 year old girl gets her hands on the candy dish which she proceeds to destroy. Enter the assistant principal who was alerted to the situation either by the desperate calls from the teacher for reinforcements, or by the noisy carnage being inflicted in the classroom by the 5 year old kindergarten student. Either way the 5 year old manages to get a punch (tap) in on the assistant principal while the teacher is presumably still being tended to by the medics or busy cleaning up boxes or cleaning up the broken candy dish or washing the walls. Something isn't right with the story and one should wonder whether or not the people in charge know what in the hell they're doing or saying. Let's not play with stupid ideological banter. We all know that if society handcuffed every kid who has tantrums and trouble recognizing and relating to authority figures, half of American kids would be in the backseat of a cop car.

A girl in a classroom (kindergarten) was throwing books (not one book but more books) and then moved on to boxes. The teacher tries to stop the 5 year old girl and gets incapacitated when kicked in the shin by the 5 year old kindergarten toddler.

I think I have figured out your problem.  It is called reading comprehension.  That gets a trolling and irrelevant rating.

That gets a trolling and irrelevant rating

I'll second that motion...

Thanks for the troll points. But maybe you could comment on the comment instead. To take that story at face value is dumb. yeah Dharm you'd allow so much shit to happen in your own home, watching destruction after destruction while not doing anything to stop it. Dharm would watch her son's 5 year old friend come into her place, draw all over the walls and not take the crayon away from her, then throw books around, then throw boxes around, then kick her in the shin, then break her candy dish, then move onto punching her husband in the stomach. Think about it. Were the grown up teacher and principal unable to stop the little 5 year old girl? Did they need to escalate the bullshit by getting the police involved? You know, the people who are busy enough dealing with criminals for them to have time enough to cuff a little 5 year old girl.

Thanks for the troll points. But maybe you could comment on the comment instead. To take that story at face value is dumb.

Hey Brainless, no one took the story at face value!  try R-E-A-D-I-N-G The story, and the blog and the responses!

Damn, I never thought I would find someone stupider or more ignorant than Wise Fawn, but you just made the top of the list!

yeah Dharm you'd allow so much shit to happen in your own home, watching destruction after destruction while not doing anything to stop it. Dharm would watch her son's 5 year old friend come into her place, draw all over the walls and not take the crayon away from her, then throw books around, then throw boxes around, then kick her in the shin, then break her candy dish, then move onto punching her husband in the stomach.

*sigh*...you just don't get it, do you?

Are you deliberately obnoxious, or is it just an inherent part of your nature?

*sigh*...you just don't get it, do you?

I am on the verge of a first. My First blacklist. I really think he has a reading comprehension problem, but if he is going to spout stupidity on top of it...........

Hmm I don't know. Taking her to jail may be too much, but same time what she did to school is pretty bad. All kids do that at her age, but all that in minutes?

If you ask me this whole thing is ridiculous! Who the hell shackles and puts plastic cuffs on a five year old? Jesus God!! I would be suing the school AND the cops. Next thing you know, they'll be pulling guns on kindergartners for yelling in class. Talk about repression! Whether or not the parents were too "soft" on the child is moot. The point is: If a teacher is going to TEACH and a SO CALLED Asst. Principal is going to run a school, they should be physically able to handle a small child for Gods sake! There are options for situations as this. Foremost in MY mind is counseling for the parentts and child. NOT manacles for babies! THINK about what your talkin about!

Who the hell shackles and puts plastic cuffs on a five year old?

Ok, try to imagine the predicament the cops and the teachers must have been in. What were they supposed to do, just let this kid carry on hitting people and trashing the place? The teachers were probably afraid that if they tried to restrain the kid they'd get charged with assault...and from the mother's reaction to her child's behaviour and the subsequent events, I'd say that them getting sued was a very real threat too. So, they called the cops to come and help get the kid under control. Although the report doesn't state this, I think that the child was probably still raging when the police got there, which is what caused them to put her in cuffs.
This situation wasn't handled in the best manner, no...but we also weren't there and have only a brief synopsis of the events. We don't know if this child has acted like this before, if she has ADHD or some other condition that might cause her to have uncontrollable fits of rage...we just don't know enough to make a judgement call like that. My middle son was diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder and my little guy has ADD, so I have some experience with rages and full blown tantrums - Davey once broke my toe when he was raging, and I've had plenty of bruised arms, shins and bite marks from dealing with them when they got out of contol -if this girl was acting anything like my sons have in the past I can totally understand why the staff felt it necessary to call in the police.
Like I said, it probably could have been handled in a better way, but......

Parents such as the one described in the referenced article are the exact reason why I only taught one semester of middle school art.

The children are out of control, authority has been taken away from the teacher, and parents are looking for someone else to blame for the problems their child causes.

It is a no fault society in public schools, as a teacher you cannot disipline, even verbally, without fear of reprissal. Isolation is considered excessive, as well as public corrective action.

You are supposed to adapt the classroom to whatever percieved disorders are present in the students, it tends to bring the instruction down to the lowest common denominator, basically to the point just above basic child care........

Oh, and I am sure the police were called to effect appropriate disiplinary action for the primary reason of defering liability. In this school district, Resourse Officers are stationed at every school for the same purpose ( 4th grade and up)and are called upon almost daily to break up fights etc....

IMHO, the lack of parenting skills at home( or the complete lack of parents ) is at the root of the problem, but in this politically correct world who in their right mind would dare call a spade a spade............

So it goes........

If a teacher is going to TEACH and a SO CALLED Asst. Principal is going to run a school, they should be physically able to handle a small child for Gods sake!

The problem with this option is the following: Teacher and/or Asst. Principal attempt to "handle" the child. While being restrained, the struggling child manages to hurt herself. Even if the child is not hurt, just saying that the teacher or asst. principal hurt her is grounds for a lawsuit. It's absolutely pathetic that the police had to become involved in this case, but when we live in a world where lawsuits have taken precedence over personal responsibility, I can see why the authority figures would have been cautious about even breathing on the child.

Teacher and/or Asst. Principal attempt to "handle" the child. While being restrained, the struggling child manages to hurt herself. Even if the child is not hurt, just saying that the teacher or asst. principal hurt her is grounds for a lawsuit. It's absolutely pathetic that the police had to become involved in this case, but when we live in a world where lawsuits have taken precedence over personal responsibility, I can see why the authority figures would have been cautious about even breathing on the child.

EXACTLY!!!!!! And, like I said, given the mom's attitude of 'they set my girl up'...well, the faculty's attempts to restrain her would have been a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Ever since the government started eroading a parents right to "deal" with there children, there has been a moral decay
of our children, Now when you go to discipline your child {not kick the shiot out of} you have to worry about, the child getting mad and calling police, some liberal social service putz sticking there nose in your buisness, maybe taking your kid away, A child right out lieing to the law, and on and on, this is what we get when government dictates how we can raise our kids.

Yeah, These things are true. I especially agree with Moderateman in post # 16. I know what I said earlier, and I was in a particularly defensive mood at that time... But I stand by what I said. These are all good points, and I'm sure the calling the cops was to protect themselves. But the reality is (on reflection) there is no way to know what, exactly, the situation was. I really think the mother should be closely looked at here. I mean, if this child has a disorder, shouldn't the parents have questioned the childs behavior at home? I don't think the school was too far outta line here. Sure they took rather EXTREME measures. But in reality, (this comes from experience) some children can get REALLY outta control! But seriously, aren't these educators supposed to be educated better about how to deal with these situations? Or is this how they ARE taught to deal with them?

Sorry about the rant, I'm just thinkin out loud here. But I really do think so

Btw... Yeah, I agree about the government "over control" issue. Everyone is sooo worried about how people deal with their kids. All they are really accomplishing is putting good parents in the same category as physical abusers. They (lawmakers) need to get a grip, and try a little harder to find out the truth. I mean, come up with laws that don't keep parents from raising their kids. BUT. Also protect children from abusive parents, etc with everything they can muster. (Impossible demand huh?) After all... WHO'S kids ARE they anyhow?

I am a teacher and a parent of a kindergartener. I think that the teachers and the principle should have handled this situation. If you have the skills a training you should have to be an early childhood educator, the teacher could have handled it or even prevented it.

The girl is only 5 years old. 5 year olds are not rational adults that is why they are called children. Why would you think this is a case where a parent should lose custody of their child. A child needs a parent not the government deciding whats best for them in situations like this. If the state did think this is a good case to take away a child, which they would not, she would really grow up in a harmful situation. If the school would have called her parent instead of the police I am sure the mother wouldn't have felt "set up". Just remember, THE GIRL IS 5 YEARS OLD and try to stay of the SLIPPERY SLOPE.

Regarding your comments about the handcuffed 5 year old school student, I believe that you should change the name of this site to: A whiff Of Halitosis.

I guess some of you don't realize how much damage a 5 yr old can do when they are mad. My former friends 5 yr old could drop an adult, and a 5 yr old can be hard to restrain when in the throwns of a full blown tantrum. The police ankle cuffing and using plastic hand restraints may have been nessicary, we weren't there, we don't know. But how else would you restrain her? hold her and pray you don't get sued or get your nose broken because she headbutted you in the face? Obviously she wouldn't have just sat in a chair while they called her parents. And she could have really hurt a classmate, then the school would have been sued for not doing enough to protect the other 5 yr olds.

The mom needs to worry more about getting her child the help she needs to learn to control her behaver, and not enable her by giving in and blaming others. If it was one of my daughters, I would start family counceling ASAP to get to the root of the behavior before it escolated. There would be noone to blame but myself.

(and yes, I know I can't spell)

Dr Guy has gone a little over the top here with is conclusions and made more than a few assumptions on no evidence at all. Obviously he doesn't have much experience with six year old's either.

I think the mother's reaction is natural and to be expected. She wasn't there to witness the episode, how can she just assume the faculty didn't over react out of anger? The city police shouldn't have been called, there are campus police for that whom are specially trained to handle children. -and finally, when the (real) police to arrest a child, anyone's child, don't you think it would be quite irresponsible if the parents didn't consult a lawer?

Here are to other links to this story. It sounds like more than one incident and that the teachers had tried other tactics prior to calling the police.


Link

Link

This is the video that the attorney released:

Link

I'm going to jump the gun here and start writing my new TV drama, "Diapers in the Pen", about an unruly group of kidnergartners who get sent up to Rikers for life.

We need to jail those five year olds...teach em a lesson.

I'm seriously rolling my eyes here (although, I agree, reactions such as the mother's have a good deal to do with why our society has gotten so SERIOUSLY out of whack!)