By Rhonda Ramsey,
P.O.V. Contributing Writer
At Creekside Elementary
School in Milledgeville, GA, the family of a six-year-old kindergartner named
Salecia Johnson is upset and disappointed with both police and school
officials. Salecia was handcuffed and taken to a police station for allegedly
throwing furniture, tearing items off the walls and knocking over a shelf,
which injured the principal.
"A six-year-old in
kindergarten?" Earnest Johnson, the father of Salecia Johnson, asked. “A six-year-old in kindergarten? They have no
business calling the police and handcuffing my child," he told WMAZ-TV.
But according to
Milledgeville Police Chief Dray Swicord there is no age discrimination in the “rules.”
“Our policy states that
any detainee transported to our station in a patrol vehicle is to be handcuffed
in the back. There is no age discrimination on that rule."
Johnson's aunt, Candace
Ruff, said that her niece "might have misbehaved, but I don't think she
actually misbehaved to the point that she should have been handcuffed and taken
downtown to the police department. Call the police? Is that the first step? Or
is there any other kind of intervention that can be taken to help that child."
Ruff also claimed that
Salecia was alone in a holding cell and complained about the handcuffs hurt her
wrists.
"She said they were
really tight. She said they really hurt her wrists," Ruff told the
Associated Press. "She was so shaken up when we went there to pick her
up."
Swicord denies that the
child was in a holding cell. The Associated Press reported that he said she was
held in the department's squad room and given a Coke.
I don’t know about you,
but I am not sure what to say. I am imagining this “tantrum.” I am wondering
where all of this rage is coming from, and I may never know. But I cannot
imagine a six-year-old in handcuffs.
So what do you think? If you are unable to restrain a six-year-old
and the child is “out of control”, should she/he be handcuffed? What about if it was your own school-aged
child? What would you think? And let us ponder this beyond the tantrum or the
initial feeling many of us may have; that our child would not act this way.
What do you think of a
six-year-old being handcuffed?
Sources: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com
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