14 minutes ago



ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A 5-year-old girl was arrested, cuffed and put in back of a police cruiser after an outburst at school where she threw books and boxes, kicked a teacher in the shins, smashed a candy dish, hit an assistant principal in the stomach and drew on the walls.



The students were counting jelly beans as part of a math exercise at Fairmount Park Elementary School when the little girl began acting silly. That's when her teacher took away her jelly beans, outraging the child.


Minutes later, the 40-pound girl was in the back of a police cruiser, under arrest for battery. Her hands were bound with plastic ties, her ankles in handcuffs.


"I don't want to go to jail," she said moments after her arrest Monday.


No charges were filed and the girl went home with her mother.


While police say their actions were proper, school officials were not pleased with the outcome.


"We never want to have 5-year-old children arrested," said Michael Bessette, the district's Area III superintendent.


The district's campus police should have been called to help and not local police, he said.


Bessette said campus police routinely deal with children and are trained to calm them in such situations.


Under the district's code of student conduct, students are to be suspended for 10 days and recommended for expulsion for unprovoked attacks, even if they don't result in serious injury. But district spokesman Ron Stone said that rule wouldn't apply to kindergartners.


"She's been appropriately disciplined under the circumstances," he said.


The girl's mother, Inda Akins, said she is consulting an attorney.


"She's never going back to that school," Akins said. "They set my baby up."

these bastids was that afraid of a 5-year old???

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Trippy as fuck huh ... her hands and feet were bound ? a 40 lb 5 yr old ?

Poor child, she needs something else than cuffs

Mach said:

Is there a Mug Shot?

I didn't even know that you could arrest a child that young.

What about calling the parents or taking the child to the office until the parents get there and then discuss the issue and try to find out why the child is reacting this way? It just doesn't make any sense at all.

Grrrr...

AzureStarr said:

exactly...it just seems like these folks were simply too scurred (yeah, i said it) to deal with the child.

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Like she'd pull a columbine or something...over jelly beans. Now there's a headline for ya.

Toddler opens fire over stolen Jelly Beans

and they obviously don't have My recipie for bad lil girls and boys...



a dab will do ya.

give her the chair!!!

Can you really arrest a child that age, though? Or were they just scaring her?

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

As a teacher in the US I'd be scared to deal with an aggressive 5 year old myself. Hold the kid down and you might end up in court. Fuck that, let the cops deal with it.

AzureStarr said:

You have to look at her home life, something triggered her to go off like that.

luv4u said:

No doubt.

luv4u said:

Right... which is why they should have had a talk with her or found someone for her to talk to to figure out what caused her to react like that, or if it was simply a small child lashing out as kids sometimes can... I can't believe they cuffed her and all that.

Did the girl look anything like this.....

or this...

Probably more like:

all lines of right and wrong have been lost within the school system. it used to be, you could send your baby to school, have them learn a few things, develop some friendships, get to know the teachers, be recognized for the outstanding things they do, find their goals and strive to achieve them.

now, you send your babies to school, pray that the teachers have their best interests at heart, that they are trained in ways of how to deal with children, that they have patience and teach with an open honest heart, pray that the kid sitting next to them doesnt lose his mind one day and come back to shoot half the school, pray that in that in any crisis situation - the school will look out for the best interests of your child... the list goes on and on....

i have talked to my mom about this many times, she told me that back when she was in school, gum chewing was a big offense. havent we come a long way ???

i am fully prepared to take my children out of school at any given time. there is no way that my babies will have to endure that type of environment should things go completely sour. i feel for this child.. a 5 year old does not have the mental ability to weigh out the rights and wrongs in this situation. there is no way that he/she was able to comprehend that by 'coloring on the walls and kicking a principal' she would be arrested and cuffed (hands AND feet mind you). somewhere, some how there was a way to defuse this situation and bring some sort of peace to the child involved. i fully agree with the mother in this case.... if it were me, i would have been arrested the very next day for beating the shit outta ALL of them !!

that being said, i know there are some teachers here on this site, my sister-in-law is a teacher, as is my brother-in-law... i am all for teachers, and i teach my babies to give nothing but respect to them as they are there to help. however, this is not a good representation of what kind of teachers and/or principals you are supposed to respect in my opinion.
[Edited 3/18/05 11:55am]

i can't believe they went through all that. must have been a slow day.

i've GOT to see her mug shot.

it could be any reason the child began reacting, or lashing out,homelife,chemical imbalance,mild autism, who knows. but i do believe that the cops should not have dealt with it that way.

Anxiety said:

that's what I'm talking about!!!

oh, btw, this is in the ghetto part of st. pete.

Anxiety said:

Great minds think alike...see one of my first comments above.
I wonder if the smoking gun has it yet.

superspaceboy said:

i just checked over there...nope, it ain't there.

TheRealFiness said:

Lots of criminals have chemical imbalances too, it's no excuse. Some little kids with certain problems can really become like the devil himself, so it's hard to say what they should or should not have done. These days teachers can't even yell at a kid anymore without worrying about the consequences. I say bring back the:

i dunno. that child sounds as though she was a real bundle of kid violence. arresting/handcuffing a child that age does seem excessive, but she was wildly out of control. maybe a bit of a scare won't hurt her. .. ?

hmm

animal said:

granted its a catch-22 some people dont know how to handle a child like that. but the paddle is no help.

TheRealFiness said:

Nigga if they can't want, they can't kick anyone either!