The grownups need to grow up – Florida arrests child

From Bob Herbert, San Jose Mercury News:

The police chief says there were no options.

“The student became violent,” said Frank Mercurio, the no-nonsense chief of the Avon Park police. “She was yelling, screaming – just being uncontrollable. Defiant.”

At the sight of the two officers, Mercurio said, Desre’e  “tried to take flight.”

She went under a table. One of the police officers went after her. Each time the officer tried to grab her to drag her out, Desre’e would pull her legs away, the chief said.

There was a problem, though. The handcuffs were not manufactured with kindergarten kids in mind. The chief explained: “You can’t handcuff them on their wrists because their wrists are too small, so you have to handcuff them up by their biceps.”

Desre’e was put in the back of a patrol car and driven to the police station. “Then,” said Mercurio, “she was transported to central booking, which is the county jail.”

The child was fingerprinted and a mug shot was taken. “Those are the normal procedures for anyone who is arrested,” the chief said.

Desre’e was charged with battery on a school official, which is a felony, and two misdemeanors: disruption of a school function and resisting a law enforcement officer. After a brief stay at the county jail, she was released to the custody of her mother.

Desre’e is a kindergarten student. 
She is 6 years old. 
The Police Chief says she was taken out of the class room at Avon Elementary School and ‘isolated’ by staff.

When the school called the Police Department he asked if anyone had been hurt, one woman (teacher?) said she had a few red marks. 20 minutes the police showed up, dragged the kindergartener out and charged her with with battery on a school official, which is a felony, and two misdemeanors: disruption of a school function and resisting a law enforcement officer.
The police report: black female. Six years old. Thin build. Dark complexion.

“But she was 6,” I said.

The chief’s reply came faster than a speeding bullet: “Do you think this is the first 6-year-old we’ve arrested?”

Criminalizing a child’s behavior is monstrous. This behavior by Avon Park adults changed with teaching and caring for children is madness.

Police Chief Frank Mercurio defended the arrest, saying, “When there is an outburst of violence, we have a duty to protect.” When asked by a local TV reporter, “So, you did the right thing?”, Mercurio responded, “Absolutely, absolutely. No question about it.

The grownups are far more out of control than this child. 
A terrified upset girl is ‘isolated’  and tries to find safety when armed, uniformed booted loud men show up and begin barking orders in a supposedly safe environment; a healthy, terrified 6 year old going to hide.  And staff and police decided it was perfectly okay to drag her out and terrify her further.

“Believe me when I tell you,” said Mercurio, “a 6-year-old can inflict injury to you just as much as any other person.”

Believe me when I tell you Mercuiro, Avon Park School Board, Avon Elemenary staff and your Police Department.
You willfully, deliberately harmed a child more than you seem able to comprehend. 
Your behavior, attitude and justification, denial and ignorance is appalling, and I hope every thinking person that has read this, contacts this school, the board and police department to express their disgust at how sick it is to use the legal system for basic child discipline.
There needs to be consequences for the grownups behavior.
Avon Park is in Central Florida, population 8, 882 (2005 Census). Per capita income: $11,867.00. 40.85% of citizens under 18 live below the poverty line.

The U.S. is the only United Nations member state except Somalia that has neglected to ratify the UN’s 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child. In February 2001, George W. Bush explicitly objected to its “human rights-based approach”–which, among other things, prohibits incarcerating children as adults because their minds are too immature to form “criminal intent.”

Indeed, the U.S. is home to more than 99 percent of youths serving life sentences without the possibility of parole worldwide. More than 100,000 children are currently incarcerated in local detention and state correctional institutions.

The St. Petersburg Times reported, “Nowadays, children as young as 6 or 7 are carted off in handcuffs, locked up and saddled with permanent criminal records…More than 4,500 kids 11 and under were charged with crimes in Florida during the fiscal year that ended in June.”

The Times continued, “Kids as young as seven spend the night in detention centers. Kids as young as 10 are sent away for a year or more. And in a very few cases, children enter the justice system at even younger ages, such as a 5-year-old St. Petersburg boy charged this year with burglary; and incredibly, a preschool arson suspect who went through a pretrial diversion program in South Florida at age 3.”

via: Schneier on Security