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'Don't make a wrong move,' cop tells 7-year-old boy with autism; his arrest is one of more than 700 [1]
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Date: 2022-11-17
Warning: Video contains disturbing footage of a child being arrested that may be triggering for viewers.
Ron Applin, chief of police for Atlanta Public Schools, told CBS News he’s “never seen a situation or a circumstance” in his six years that warranted an elementary school student being arrested.
"We've never done it,” he said. “I don't see where it would happen."
Black students comprised almost half of those arrested in the data even though they made up only 15% of students at their schools, and children with disabilities were four times more likely than their peers to be arrested, CBS News reported.
Alacia Gerardi, the mother of the student arrested in North Carolina, told the news station when she arrived at her son’s school after receiving a text to pick him up, she couldn't understand why he was handcuffed face down on the floor when an Individualized Education Plan detailed his disabilities.
"It was a very rude awakening, because when I arrived there and I picked my son up off the floor. He was limp, completely limp," she said. "He was just exhausted. I didn't know what had happened, but after I saw the video, it was very apparent that his little body just couldn't take being put in that position for that length of time. He had his chest against the floor, his hands behind his back. This man's applying pressure against his back."
Aaron Kupchik, a sociology and criminal justice professor at the University of Delaware, told the news network that, in an analysis of interviews with 75 School Resource Officers (SROs), those who worked with students in low-income areas tended to "define the threat as students themselves." "Whereas the SROs who work in wealthier, whiter school areas define the threat as something external that can happen to the children," Kupchik said.
An incident involving an 11-year-old Black student with disabilities in Riverside County, California, seemed to exemplify the racist ideology at play. The child, who we’ll refer to as C.B. to protect his anonymity, was handcuffed for refusing to go to the principal's office after being accused a day earlier of throwing a rock at a staff member. She wasn't injured, and in a lawsuit filed on C.B.’s behalf, attorneys alleged police involvement for "low-level and disability-related behaviors" was part of a pattern.
In the incident that led to C.B.’s detainment, attorneys wrote:
C.B. sat with his head down on his desk while the school police officers questioned him. Within ninety seconds of their arrival, the officers physically pulled C.B. from his desk by his arms and shoulders, pushed him with force to the ground, and handcuffed him. One officer pinned his knee in C.B.’s back while another officer placed him in handcuffs. 5. As a result of Defendants’ unnecessary and excessive physical and mechanical restraints, C.B. has suffered and continues to suffer severe emotional distress, mental anguish, pain, humiliation, and exacerbation of his disabilities. His parents have secured therapy services to help him cope with the trauma caused by these incidents. 6. On information and belief, Defendants were and are on notice that interactions with school police officers trigger and exacerbate C.B.’s disabilities and cause emotional distress. Nevertheless, the District continues to request and direct school police officers to respond to C.B.’s minor and/or disability-related behaviors, unnecessarily escalating matters.
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Attorneys continued in the lawsuit:
Defendants do not adequately train SROs on how to safely and appropriately interact with students, especially students with disabilities. Defendants failure to train in this area constitutes deliberate indifference in light of the statistical likelihood, based on national and District-level data, that SROs will disproportionately encounter students with disabilities.
RELATED STORIES:
Former North Carolina deputy charged with assault after video shows him slamming student on floor
A 5-year-old berated and handcuffed by Maryland cops wins settlement money, but cops pay no price
'They are not boys, they’re men': Syracuse cops face intense scrutiny for encounter with 8-year-old
Fourth Circuit: It's not okay to handcuff school children, but go ahead and do it anyway
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