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The mother of an 8-year-old autistic girl who was arrested after a scuffle with her teachers said it was horrifying to watch her daughter be led away in handcuffs from her northern Idaho elementary school.
Police in Bonner County, Idaho, charged the girl, Evelyn Towry, with battery after the arrest Friday at Kootenai Elementary School.
Even though prosecutors dismissed the case Tuesday, the family is considering legal action against the school. They say their daughter was physically restrained to the point of causing bruises and is now tormented by memories of the incident.
Spring Towry said she got to the school Friday just in time to see 54-pound Evelyn -- who was diagnosed at age 5 with Asperger's Syndrome, a high functioning form of autism -- being walked to a police car with two officers at her side.
"She started screaming 'Mommy, I don't want to go! What are batteries? What are batteries?'" Towry said. "She didn't even know what she was arrested for."
Originally posted by budski
wow
just
wow
I am having a really hard time believing this.
Believing that a school would call the police for a child who had become "violent" after being restrained by teachers.
Believing that 2 police officers would then handcuff (with enough force to leave bruises) an 8 year old child weighing 54 pounds - a child who the school knew had aspergers.
I'm just thankfull they didn't tase her at the same time - after all, she must have posed quite a risk. (sarc)
It's this kind of incident that makes people lose faith in police and in the criminal justice system.
Whatever happened to calling the parents, or the police using a little common sense.
If this was my little girl, I would sue their collective asses.
abcnews.go.com
(visit the link for the full news article)
Originally posted by Holly N.R.A.
This whole situation is not a mistake by anyone....it is a plain and simple travesty of the use of the justice system, and of course "teachers" that are so used to dealing with cookie cutter children of yups and dinks, that they have no grasp of how to truly TEACH !!!
Yes, this angers me because I too have a young adult child with Aspergers that was continuously treated as if she were some kind of "idiot", until I got smart, pulled her out of the system at age 10 and home schooled her until she was 17.
She "hated" school, not the learning part...just the people that would not listen....and sadly, I am continuing to "fight for her" even now at age 20. She is very intelligent, and when treated in a way she can understand one of the most loving and helpful people you will ever meet....but at the same time, do not confuse, anger, or lie to her, she knows these things, and if you do....you will find out the other side that these kids have. If it isn't tears and running away, it will be standing up for themselves, physically, if they have to.
Society needs to realize and understand, not everyone is the same, and deal with it appropriately...
I hope the parents remove their girls from the corruption they law requires them to be subject to and sues the pants off everyone involved....if that is what it takes to set a precedent...then let it be done.
~Holly
Originally posted by sputniksteve
So the Principle, and teachers involved should be sued for everything they own, because they were not professionals at restraining children. That must be the answer.
If you read the article you would see that the child was pinching, spitting, kicking at the adults involved.
I fail to see how financially ruining these people will help anything.
How about some training on how to deal with Autistic kids? That sounds like a much better idea to me.
And if you read the article you would know that this all happened because the child refused to listen to directions and decided taht she would go to the party anyway, even though she was told to sit in a room for not following a simple direction.
Does no one here think that maybe, just maybe part of this blame should be put on the child, that in all fairness did attack the adults, no matter how big or little the size/weight difference?
At what point does the child have to take responsibility for their actions and what point are they free from responsibility?
Originally posted by sputniksteve
You have made a whole lot of assumptions in your argument, most of which are pretty unfounded considering we only have 3 pages of story to look at and no other sources.
Originally posted by sputniksteve
If you read the article you would see that the child was pinching, spitting, kicking at the adults involved.
Originally posted by sputniksteve
And if you read the article you would know that this all happened because the child refused to listen to directions and decided taht she would go to the party anyway, even though she was told to sit in a room for not following a simple direction.
Originally posted by pieman
reply to post by budski
if it was my daughter i wouldn't be sending her to a mainstream school!!
a child with aspingers does not behave or react in the way a normal child would, elementary school teachers aren't generally trained to deal with this stuff and to expect them to do a good job every time is a little unreasonable.
apparently, this is not a isolated incident on the part of the child, at what point is it appropriate to call in support that is authorised to restrain a child that is hitting, kicking, pinching and spitting.......again?