SPLC: Children should not be handcuffed and shackled if they misbehave

 

[caption id="attachment_9467" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Bade and cuffs for perpetrators caught in crimes"][/caption]

 Carol Forsloff - The question might sound ridiculous to some, and for others an idea whose time has come, but the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) maintains children have been subjected to unlawful search and seizure and has filed a class action suit against a New Orleans school district.

SPLC maintains children are being handcuffed and shackled for misbehaving.  The lawsuit maintains this occurs for minor violations of school rules and was filed on behalf of a first-grade student.  

The student, referred to in the suit as J.W., was only six years old when he was said to be "brutally handcuffed and shackled to a chair by an armed security officer after he argued with another youth over a seat in the lunchroom at Sarah T. Reed Elementary School.  This is one of the schools that is part of the Louisiana Recovery School District.

When J.W.'s father inquired about why his son was treated like that, he was told it was told that arrest and seizure was required under school rules.

"These incidents, where our little boy was treated more like an animal than a young child, have affected him greatly," Sebastian Weston said.  Weston is the child's father, who declares his son is now "terrified of school, his teachers and the police."

Weston went on to say, "He has gone from being a bundle of joy--excited about school and his friends--to now withdrawing into a shell."

The child's fear has materialized into behavior that seriously concerns Weston as he continues to tell folks in reference to his son, "He doesn’t want to go outside and play with his friends anymore. He just wants to be alone in his room. He won’t do his homework anymore."

The complaint alleges the school principal, one of several named defendants, “provided a clear directive to all employees … that students were to be arrested and handcuffed if they failed to comply with school rules.” The complaint also alleges that RSD officials, including Superintendent Paul Vallas and Director of Security Eddie Compass al, lowed the enforcement of this policy at Reed Elementary and were deliberately indifferent to the rights of the students who attend school there.

"Handcuffing and shackling children to furniture is absolutely outrageous and can inflict not only physical injuries but psychological wounds that can have a profound impact," said SPLC attorney Thena Robinson. "School personnel acted unreasonably and continue to enforce a school policy that violates clearly established state and federal law."

This type of handling of young children has been described as occurring at RSD for many years, as local advocates have described the practices of arresting, handcuffing and shackling schoolchildren.  

"Since children returned to the city after Hurricane Katrina, schools have treated them like criminals," said JJPL Legal Director Carol Kolinchak, who represents a group of parents of incarcerated children. "In a city with such significant educational needs, our schools have a duty to provide support for students rather than respond with inappropriate aggression. While work with RSD has yielded some positive results, including a move away from private security contractors, we have reached a point where the courts must intervene to uphold the law, and clear policies and procedures to govern school security officers must be put in place."

The suit, which seeks certification as a class action, asks for a court ruling that the school’s policy to "unlawfully seize and arrest schoolchildren at Sarah T. Reed Elementary School absent probable cause of criminal activity" violates students’ rights under the U.S. Constitution.

"This must stop," said Weston. "Our children are not animals and should not be treated this way."

Similar punitive types of treatment have been described as occurring at the alternative school and other schools in predominantly black districts, according to a mental health counselor in Natchitoches, Louisiana, who asked not to be named in this story.

It is a practice parents are questioning, as people examine whether children's rights should be fair and equal according to the law in the same manner as adults under the Constitution.  It is also an argument that continues to take place about the management of children with behavioral problems.