A school in Georgia called the police after a kindergartener threw a tantrum. It seems to be a growing trend where schools will get the police involved if a student becomes disruptive or is considered to be out of control. In some states, police must handcuff anyone who is being transported in the back of a police car.
A rather disturbing incident happened at an elementary school in Milledgeville, Georgia. A kindergarten student, who was six years old, threw a tantrum. The school decided to call the police to come and pick her up. This raises many unanswered questions.
There are some aspects of this story that are known. A six year old girl threw a tantrum while she was at school. This was no ordinary tantrum. A police report by the officer who was called said that he “noticed damage to school property and possible assault of other students and staff”.
The principal at the school told the police that “a small shelf struck her in the leg while the girl was throwing items at her”. The police report went on to say that the girl “tried several times to get out of the office. She was observed biting the door knob of the office and jumping on the paper shredder and attempted to break a glass frame above the shredder”.
The officer who arrived at the school said that he tried to calm the girl down, but she “pulled away and began actively resisting and fighting with me”. The kindergartner was charged with assault and damage to property. She will not have to go to court because of her age. She was taken away from the school in the back of a police car. State law requires officers to place handcuffs onto anyone who is being transported in the back of a police car, no matter what their age. This means that the six year old was handcuffed.
Here is what is not clear, at least to me. What happened that caused the kindergartener to react the way that she did? I’m not sure if the child is, officially, in a special education program, or if she is not. The girl’s mother says that her daughter has mood swings. She said “I guess that was just one of her bad days”.
The school has suspended the kindergartener through the end of the school year. It is not known if this means that the girl will be held back a year, or not, due to this incident. The police officer said that he made six attempts to contact the girl’s mother via telephone. It is not clear why the mother did not answer her phone.
Image by Vectorportal on Flickr