5 Year Old Arrested For Outburst Over Candy At School - Handcuffed

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Florida school officials are apologizing for the arrest of a 5-year-old, whose tantrum landed her in the back of a police cruiser.

Officials said the girl 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. She was upset when a teacher took away jelly beans she was counting in a math exercise at Fairmount Park Elementary School.

Minutes later, she was under arrest for battery. The 40-pound girl's hands were bound with plasic ties and her ankles in handcuffs.

A school superintendent said campus police should have been called. He said school officials "never want to have 5-year-old children arrested."

No charges were filed and the girl went home with her mother, who said her daughter will not return. In her words, "They set my baby up."

http://www.wftv.com/education/4298451/detail.html

What is going on with this country...?

She should be punished but hand cuffing her ankles? Why would anyone need to restrain a 5-year old with cuffs? :shrug:

Granted, I don't know how dramatic the officers were being, but the girl assaulted a couple adults at the school, and the cops got called. They tried to remove her from the school, but she started hitting the officers. When they put her in the car, she was cuffed, but the cuffs came off. They zip-tied her hands, put her back in the car. Then she started kicking at the officers in the car, the windows, etc. So they shackled her.

The original reason was that she refused to participate in the jelly bean exercise, not because they were taken away. I can't find the link at the Times or Tribune sites, but living in Tampa, and taking in all the wonderful news from my area, I remember the story well.

Hey, at least there was no taser involved...this time.

It's not normal to start hitting teachers. The teachers are probably limited in what they can legally do, so they were probably following procedure.