6 year old charged with felony for throwing temper tantrum

[Larkin Fan]

Originally Posted by GAC

We really don't have many particulars on this child. Is she simply a spoiled little brat who has learned that throwing these tantrums at home has helped her get her way and exercise control? So if it works at home, then why not at school? If that is the case, then there is very little the school can do if the parents are condoning/promoting this behavior.

Or perhaps she has a close loved one that is deathly ill? Or her parents are going through a divorce? Kids act out for a variety of reasons and in a variety of different ways. The fact of the matter is that she is a six year old child. Society can't apply the same standards to a child that they apply to an adult or even a teenager in this case. Calling the police and making this a criminal matter is far beyond excessive and an abuse of power. There's just no way to defend it.

[vaticanplum]

This is really a glorification of Larkin Fan's post, but I don't really care what this kid has been through, or how her parents have raised her; whether they're on welfare or the Forbes 500 or whether they hit her or not. The fact of the matter is that arresting a six-year-old is a completely inappropriate way to deal with a situation. To those of you who think it's a truly beneficial move: how does she stand to benefit from this? True discipline comes from consistency; she's had no precedent set leading her to believe that any misbehavior would lead to an arrest with handcuffs on her arms. The (justifiable) public outcry over this makes it more of a circus than a matter of discipline and it's unlikely to happen again. And if it were to happen again -- do you condone that? Should we ask the police to come in and take care of all screaming children in public places, taking their time and resources away from, you know, actual crime? It's not going to happen. She does not stand to learn to control her behavior from this arrest.

And to those of you who condone this behavior because of its effect on some kind of greater scale -- a "message" being sent, if you will -- how do you think that will really work? Again, do you want the police to be devoting much time to this to take care of parents who don't discipline their children at home? Who sets the standard of discipline? Do we quiz parents at hospitals, and if they state intentions never to spank their children, do we hire out a policeman to check on the house once a week and handcuff the children if they're misbehaving?

It's quite possible that children are acting up more in school than they used to. That's an entirely separate discussion. It has nothing to do with the police force. There's no reason to arrest a six-year-old for a temper tantrum, period. It serves no purpose.

[Slyder]

I wish this was from some site like The Onion but its not... It actually happened. Thats just screwed up.

[guttle11]

Originally Posted by vaticanplum

This is really a glorification of Larkin Fan's post, but I don't really care what this kid has been through, or how her parents have raised her; whether they're on welfare or the Forbes 500 or whether they hit her or not. The fact of the matter is that arresting a six-year-old is a completely inappropriate way to deal with a situation. To those of you who think it's a truly beneficial move: how does she stand to benefit from this? True discipline comes from consistency; she's had no precedent set leading her to believe that any misbehavior would lead to an arrest with handcuffs on her arms. The (justifiable) public outcry over this makes it more of a circus than a matter of discipline and it's unlikely to happen again. And if it were to happen again -- do you condone that? Should we ask the police to come in and take care of all screaming children in public places, taking their time and resources away from, you know, actual crime? It's not going to happen. She does not stand to learn to control her behavior from this arrest.

And to those of you who condone this behavior because of its effect on some kind of greater scale -- a "message" being sent, if you will -- how do you think that will really work? Again, do you want the police to be devoting much time to this to take care of parents who don't discipline their children at home? Who sets the standard of discipline? Do we quiz parents at hospitals, and if they state intentions never to spank their children, do we hire out a policeman to check on the house once a week and handcuff the children if they're misbehaving?

It's quite possible that children are acting up more in school than they used to. That's an entirely separate discussion. It has nothing to do with the police force. There's no reason to arrest a six-year-old for a temper tantrum, period. It serves no purpose.

Great post. I'm not a parent, teacher, or even someone that has taken care of a child more than a few times, but arresting a 6 year old is ludicrous. There is no way she understands that what she was doing is truly wrong.

It just sets a terrifying precedent.

[Chip R]

I'm just glad the cops didn't have to call in the National Guard to take care of this child.

[Larkin Fan]

Originally Posted by Chip R

I'm just glad the cops didn't have to call in the National Guard to take care of this child.

I heard SWAT was on standby. Especially when the officer had to crawl after her.

[guttle11]

Originally Posted by Larkin Fan

I heard SWAT was on standby. Especially when the officer had to crawl after her.

They were about to throw the animal phone in to try and moo her out.



I'm sorry.

[westofyou]

I'm just glad the cops didn't have to call in the National Guard to take care of this child.

[Yachtzee]

In my current job, I receive the daily call sheets for the local police department in my email every morning. You would be surprised by the number of times police are called to handle problems with unruly children. The crazy thing about it is that it's not schools who are calling the police on these kids, it their own parents. It's sad really to see parents call the police to handle their 8 year old kid because they can't or won't deal with it themselves.

Charging a 6 year old with a felony is pretty extreme. Apparently Florida found it necessary to make Battery of a School Employee a 3rd Degree Felony. I wouldn't think it was intended to cover temper tantrums by 6 year olds.

[919191]

Last school year, in my son'e second grade class, he had a classmate who had previously attended another school. My wife was volunteering to assist the teacher every Tuesday and saw alot of this firsthand. The boy's mom wasn;t in the picture at all. Why I don't know- indifference, jail, dead, I don't know. He lived with his dad. I saw him sometimes. I know you can't tell by looking, but the meth problem here is bad enough to have reported in the regional press alot, and I would bet his dad knew alot about it--but I could be wrong. I don't judge folks by their looks- at least I try not too, but I bet I am right in this case. The boy never ever brought home completed homework. My wife thought it never even left his backpack. My wife said he seemed smart enough, and was usually nice, but occaisionally he would lose it. By lose it I mean throw books across the room and overturn his desk and tables. HJe would toss his chair. He was truly a danger to the other kids. The teacher, who I regard as a true assett, stood maybe 4'11'' and couldn't have weighed more than 90. He had an outburst so bad the school called the police and the boy was removed. I am sure he wasn't arrested- juveniles aren't really arrrested anyway, but "processed" , but he was removed from the school. What became of him I don't know, but I think here the right call was made. Sometimes the police may be needed.

[paintmered]

Aren't there other adults in the school besides the teacher that can respond to these kinds of incidents? What kind of situation would it take for multiple adults to be unable to physically control a child? If other children are in potential danger, can't a teacher/principal use minimal force (i.e. lay hands) to restrain the child?

Unless there's a deadly weapon involved, don't call the police. I mean, what is the teacher/principal going to do while waiting for the cops to arrive? Sit back and watch it all happen? "No, no Timmy. Don't throw that pair of scissors at Sarah or you will get your name written on the board." That sure wasn't the way things happened at my school. And before I tell you to get off my lawn, I graduated in this decade.

It appears a few people failed to do their job in this incident. At least the cops did their job right.

[creek14]

You're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

I tend to think there is a lot more to this story than what is in print.

Any more if you lay a finger on a child in school you'll find yourself (at least with the threat of being) in court.

My brother-in-law called the cops when a kid brought a gun to school. Parents sued him and the school district. "Why did you involve the police, the gun wasn't loaded."

[Redsfaithful]

Originally Posted by creek14

My brother-in-law called the cops when a kid brought a gun to school. Parents sued him and the school district. "Why did you involve the police, the gun wasn't loaded."

This is just like the calling social services comment. You can call social services on anyone, it doesn't mean social services will do anything about it.

And you can sue anyone for any reason, it doesn't mean you'll win. I seriously doubt the case above went anywhere.

[zombie-a-go-go]

Originally Posted by MaineRed

I don't know if it was true when I was in school but kids are CRAZY these days, CRAZY.

Kids aren't much different these days then they were "in the good old days." The primary difference is the magnification of every community's dirty laundry via the intarweb tubes. 20 years ago this would have happened and you would have never heard about it because it didn't happen in your community.

There were lousy parents when I was growing up, when my parents were growing up, and so on and so forth.

[Roy Tucker]

My wife does subbing in the local elementary school. I asked her about this. She said they have a whole escalation policy with handling problem children.

She said 99% of the time, the teacher can handle the situation. Step 2 is sending the kid down to the dreaded office which usually puts the fear of God into their heart and that's the end of it. If they don't go, the principal comes to the classroom to deal with it which is deep yogurt time for the child.

She said there are also a couple men teachers that are called in as backups. Not that they physically abuse the kids, it's just a different ballgame when a 6 yr. old is confronted by a 6'4" 220 lb. man with a big voice instead a 4'11" 100 lb. teacher.

And if anything goes to that degree, the school psychologist gets involved and all those mechanisms are engaged. Parents are called in, earnest discussions are held, i.e. intervention time.

She said at this elementary school in the past 6-7 years, they had to call the police in once, but that was because some 4th grader was brandishing a pistol (which turned out to be a pellet gun).

Cops are more routinely called into the middle and high schools, but that's a bit more expected.