Girl, 6, Handcuffed, Committed Because Of Classroom Behavior

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- A Port St. Lucie first-grade student was handcuffed and committed to a mental health facility because of her classroom behavior, and her parents are furious that the school took such extreme measures.

www.wpbf.com...

This cannot be the whole story! If it is, I am disgusted... A girl, 6 years old, throws a tantrum in class (Admittedly a bad one) and the school has her institutionalized? Yes, that is right, that had her put into a mental health facility!

Tell me there is more to the story. Tell me she was hallucinating, and showing signs of schizophrenia... Something...

Tell me she was doing something besides throwing a tantrum... Which every human being ever, has done as a child....

She must not have been having any mental health issues because she was released and is now staying at home....

I am just.... dumbfounded... Does nobody know how to raise a child anymore? I guess not because it seems more and more that at the first sign of mischief we just arrest them, and dump them onto the state....


Gross...

www.wpbf.com...

This happened to a boyfriends little brother. Like any 9 year old, he got mad and told the teacher: I am going to kill you. This was right after Columbine. 9 year old kid got put away in a mental institution for 5 months. I would visit him and he was so drugged up he would stare off and drool.

So I have seen this absurdity first hand.

I could SWEAR I saw this same thing here a year or more ago. Small child in school handcuffed, and I think it was Florida. Now I need to see if I can find it.

[Edit to add]

Well, if you do a search on thread titles with Handcuffed, it returns several threads involving children. Not sure which one I was thinking of, but apparently it isn't a unique situation.

[edit on 2/11/2010 by yeahright]

I noticed this in the news report:

The report also said the school has contacted Haley's parents several times about setting up a meeting to discuss her behavior, but they have never shown up.

Franklin said she was supposed to meet with school officials Tuesday but had to cancel because she had car problems.

Car problems..? These parents act like they have something to hide. There must be a reason they clearly don't want to discuss their daughter's problems. And there must be a reason this little girl has these out of control tantrums.

I hope someone has the good sense to look into what is really going on in this girl's home. I suspect some kind of abuse of the child. Perhaps it is one of the parents (or both) who should be handcuffed.

I have a six year old daughter..Iam utterly flabbergasted.
Is it really too much more effort to CALL THE PARENTS to pick her up and leave it up to them to seek help for her?
:shk:
Like the judge, jury, and executioners...

Originally posted by ziggystar60
I noticed this in the news report:

The report also said the school has contacted Haley's parents several times about setting up a meeting to discuss her behavior, but they have never shown up.

Franklin said she was supposed to meet with school officials Tuesday but had to cancel because she had car problems.

Car problems..? These parents act like they have something to hide. There must be a reason they clearly don't want to discuss their daughter's problems. And there must be a reason this little girl has these out of control tantrums.

I hope someone has the good sense to look into what is really going on in this girl's home. I suspect some kind of abuse of the child. Perhaps it is one of the parents (or both) who should be handcuffed.

just noticed your post Ziggy..
Good on you.
There is a deeper problem here for sure.

Originally posted by yeahright
Not sure which one I was thinking of, but apparently it isn't a unique situation.

[edit on 2/11/2010 by yeahright]

Now that sucks... I hate to hear about kids who go through such crappy experiences...

Heart breaking in a way...

reply to post by nixie_nox


Sorry to hear that... Hope he is doing OK now.

It makes me wonder... Do people just not know how to handle kids anymore?

It is a crazy world.

reply to post by ziggystar60


Thanks for reposting that... I read that part of the article incorrectly... I read it as if it said that the school officials did not show up...

That does make me suspicious though... Not necessarily suspicious of child abuse in the home... but if I was in this parent's situation I would not let ANYTHING keep me from meeting with them.


So in that respect it does make me wonder how much she cares... I would say that maybe there is a lack of discipline in the home, but the fact is EVERY child throws tantrums. It happens...

When I was little I threw horrible tantrums. Tantrums that made this girls tantrum look like a romp in the park... Though I never threw one in school.

I just don't get why they though having her put into a psych unit was the best thing to do... I mean, she is a child, throwing a fit!!! Not some out of her head psycho...

Maybe those teachers could not tell the difference? I don't know, the whole thing just sucks.

I gotta wonder if there is something wrong in the state of Florida. Because my son is down there, and my ex is having a hard time with his behavior as well. I don't know if it's in the water, or if the environment has something to do with it, but something is amiss in the sunshine state for sure.

The school officials' behavior seems extreme at the least. I expect there's more to this story than is reported here. Maybe I'm giving the school too much credit, but I'm assuming there would have to be a huge problem before they wouldn't be able to handle it themselves. I second the opinion that there might be a case of abuse and/or neglect here.

Originally posted by Sestias
The school officials' behavior seems extreme at the least. I expect there's more to this story than is reported here.

There must be more... I mean, just taking a kid to a psych unit for throwing a tantrum? Either we are not hearing the whole story or they are the stupidest and most inept school officials I have ever seen.

The sad part is every year millions of children across the country get arrested. What most adults do not know is that the juvenile justice system has become much more punitive in the last fifteen years. No longer is juvenile court a place where regardless of what happens you get a clean slate when you turn eighteen.