Six year old arrested at School

CsonStar

New Member
Well, I realize my opinion is going to be the least liked on this board, but I personally have some law enforcement background under my belt. And my bestfriend was school resource officer of two middle schools and countless elementary schools. In reality, when your child has an outburst at school like this, it is the officers choice if they will be charged criminally or not. In MANY cases, the officer has a heart, thinks the child can be worked with, and refuses to press charges. Personally our child has nearly been charged with the EXACT same stuff twice. And I am thankfully that he HASN'T, but at the same time, I often wonder if he WAS to be charged, if it would lite a fire under his :censored2: to realize that he DOES have a problem. I have personally been in MANY of these situations in the law enforcement field, and 9 times out of 10, no I would not press charges on the child, BUT ... if you do not show these kids that they can not act like that and just get away with it at THIS age, what is to happen when they become an adult? I am not questioning ANYONE heres parenting skills, but america as a whole has become entirely too soft if you ask my opinion, we spare the rod, and spoil the child. The good book warns of just such actions. And now we are living in an age, where if we touch our childern, WE go to jail. While our childern are free to throw this fits, hit people, throw things, and do as they want, with no punishment except for a time out, which they do not do anyway. I say it is about time that a child was charge with their misbehavior. And as far as them contacting the NAACP, I think is total bull. There ARE cases that I feel the NAACP does need to brought in on, there have been a few in my state personally where they have called out a person to investigate the situation to see if anyones civil rights have been violated. In this case, I feel the people who was assaulted by this child, and the edcuaters that had to deal with its rights have been violated, I realize they sign onto this job with an understanding of having to deal with this pressure, and I realize not many of you are willing to say this, but I will, I am thankful when my difficult child goes to school, because I know that if he has an outburst, someone else deals with it up front rather than me at the time. I have dealt with MANY MANY MANY of his outburst, and it is good for OTHER people to see it, and not just me. However, when it comes to striking someone, or throwing things at someone, that is where the law comes into play, and no more babying. If they want to act like a criminal, they should be treated like a criminal. Our difficult child's life long dream is to become a cop himself, and myself and his resource officer have both told him, that with actions like this, the closest he will get to a cop, is the jailers that are taking care of him when he is locked up. I apologize for anyones toes I have stepped on, but this is a forum, it is for discussion, which can lead to debates, and this is purely friendly and a point of view. If you do not like what I say, we can agree to disagree, if you want to make rude or obscene comments to me about my opinion, then feel free to just ignore my post, cause I have little use for someone who can not accept a friendly debate as just that, a friendly debate. I can agree to disagree, and then go buy you a cup of coffee, no hard feelings had. But, this is my opinion, and I feel that the child deserves punishment, even if it winds up being crinminal punishment, at this age, she can be charge, she SHOULD be charged ... when she gets older, if she becomes a decent citizen of society, she can contact a lawyer and have it expondge from her record at once she reaches the age of 18. Kind of a "no harm no foul" situation. As for the felony charge, that may stick around, but, lets hope that she takes it as a learning lesson. And yes, I do realize that these outburst to a POINT can not be controlled, but I also believe that these kids have at least a half knowledge of the chaos they are causing. When we was kids did we throw outburst like this? NO, cause we knew if we did, our :censored2: would be so red we'd make apple look rotten. I PERSONALLY see it as a LOT of these outburst stem soly from the fact that we have lost our rights to put the fear of punishment in our childern, so it falls to the hands of the law enforcement and court systems to do what could be simply done at home (within reasoning). Now do not think that I am saying we should all go abuse our kids, that is not what I am saying at all, as a matter of fact I am strickly against child abuse. HOWEVER, there IS a fine line betwee punishment and child abuse. But, I feel rather than REMOVE punishment, lets educate people on what IS punishment and what IS child abuse, rather than just remove the rights of our people with CPS, and DSS, and all these other government agencys that tell us if we touch our child, we go to jail. I know personally, if everybody in this world had a big mama like I did, there would be less people behind bars and more people looking over their back for big mama before they did something stupid.
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
I don't agree, obviously, but I support your right to express your opinions. Our differences really emphasizes the importance
of turning out at election time to support people who are in sync
with voter philosophy. DDD
 

kris

New Member
<span style='font-size: 14pt'> <span style='font-family: Georgia'> <span style="color: #663366"> CsonStar, i agree with-you to a point. yes, parents have been hamstrung when it comes to disciplining their children & enforcing rules ~~~ & the kids themselves are the first to point that out. to be totally honest i don't thing the OCCASSIONAL spanking every did anyone any harm (can we all acknowlege that there are some people who take this too far?).

do i think a 6yo should be charged criminally? nope. in a case like this treatment should be the first option.

i don't see where the NAACP would need to come into play here. it's not a racial incident every time someone of color gets arrested. this is pure publicty seeking in my opinion.

hopefully this will all be resolved in a way that prompts treatment for this child ~~~ tho if she were to be put on some kind of probation someone would be following up to make sure the mom follows whatever guidelines come from this. not necessarily a bad thing.

kris
</span> </span> </span>
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
kris,

I hadn't even thought about it until you said it but you are absolutely right ~ the only way the media could have found out the little girl's name is if the parents brought this to their attention. The school's hands are tied by confidentiality issues and I don't believe that the police would give out a 6-year-old's name.

So that leaves the parents. If they are so worried about the child being traumatized by all of this, then why are they putting her on television and allowing her picture to be on the front page of newspapers around the country?

Something is not right about the story that we are hearing.

~Kathy
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
Your mistaken, Kathy. Anyone who is arrested for a felony is
listed and often shown in the local newspaper. This is a huge
improvement over the past....up until two years ago anyone who
was arrested for anything was in the newspaper. It is "public
knowledge". BARF! This is the 2nd child under seven who has
been featured in the past two years. DDD
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Wow, that is hard to believe. Is that true only in Florida? I don't think it is true in Georgia because whenever minors are involved in any crime here the names are never used in the articles or on television.

If so, that is something that Florida needs to change.

However, DDD, in this case the district attorney was still contemplating whether to prosecute or drop the charges so would the name have been released to the papers?

~Kathy
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
Absolutely! As soon as you are arrested and booked...all the info goes to the newspaper. The charges can be completely bogus
and dismissed within a few days or a week but there is no column
that "retracts". You are assumed guilty upon arrest. Period.

No...I don't think that is true in all states. We are also one
of only a few states that takes away the right to vote from anyone convicted of any felon. DDD
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Well, DDD, that is shocking. At least, though, this is one thing people can't blame on the school. I am sure that the school did not release the name.

I do think that the parents are flaming the fire at the child's expense.

~Kathy
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
The situation is so complex, Kathy. It's hard not to assign blame on everyone, in my humble opinion.

The school board (NOT the teachers) knows that these situations
arise and yet there is not a plan that is child focused in place.
We have lockdowns and drills for when a crisis happens of huge
proportions. We have no plan that can be activated to address
an emergency need?? Dumb!

The police department has improved somewhat (believe it or not)
but as I said earlier they have special negotiation teams etc. for adult crisis time but none for a child in crisis.

The States Attorneys office in this county is like out of a bad
movie. "Let's press charges" seems to come out easier than "Good
morning". Two of the Judges pride themselves on being "tough on
crime" (particularly juvenile crime) and haven't seemed to have
time to read the statistics on how ineffective "setting examples"
has proven to be.

As you know many parents are not good at the job. My Dad who was
an avid football fan used to say "the best defense is a good
offense". I think that may be the case here.

And then....the community climate is hypocritical to the max.
In between their devotionals and meetings, the people with PCs
want the difficult children separated from their society.

I hate this word...I think you already know that...but it sucks!
DDD
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
I've been reading everyone's responses with interest. Frankly, I don't think "sparing the rod" makes a child a crazed delinquent. I have no delinquents and never was into spanking and most criminals were abused. I do think applying a "rod" to a kid's bare :censored2: is abuse and if I saw somebody slap a kid across the face in a mall, I'd think about calling the cops. To me, that's abuse. A swat on a padded :censored2:? No, but it's not the answer. These kids have serious disorders and slapping them around won't help. Other than that, I advocate taking a child who is obviously not "right" to a hospital. The police can do that and, if they have a clue, would do that. A six year old should never be charged with a felony. Sorry, too young. If they did that to my kid, he'd probably be in the paper too because I'd want to call attention to this injustice in the state, and I'd let my kid know I was on his side. If he was sixteen, no. At six? YES!!!!! God help us--I'm just glad I don't live there. I can't imagine that happening here. All I can say is, I'm stunned anyone would think there is any scenario where a disturbed child should be charged with a felony. If the child is indeed a behavior problem all the time, then she needs help more than ever, not a police record.
 

CsonStar

New Member
As I said in my previous post, we can agree to disagree.


I personally was a rather troubled youth, I was in a school so under funded they had no clue what ADD or any other ment, they just considered me a problem. At a very young age, I was showing my :censored2: and being a "typical child" and got involved in some things I really should not have. I was detained by the cops, and was given an extremely stern talking to by them, and then released. I honestly and truly think that is all that saved my life, I was heading down a very rocky road, one of which many of my friends never returned and are now in the ground because of. Since that time, I have not only gone through law enforcement training and done a few stents of the work myself, but have never since had so much as a seat beat infraction.

Now, one thing we do agree on, is that these childern do need help.

I am not saying that every child that has a disorder needs to be beaten senseless, but I think we could fix a LOT of this mis-diagnosis, and over medicating, by simply smacking a few butts. There are TRULY troubled childern out there, that I will NOT deny, some of which TRULY need their medication to function, my difficult child being one of them. Heck I wouldn't be here if that wasn't the case, none of us would really. I am sure 90% of us (at least) have tried the normal methods, and all have failed. But I believe we can all agree that there are times when childern are lumbed into the "disorder" category, and have no business in that category.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Well, in my opinion, you, I and the cops have no business deciding which kids are sick and which ones aren't. I personally don't believe six year olds misbehave to that extreme just to cause trouble or to get their own way. I was a very troubled kid--probably had bipolar as a child, still do, raged, the whole nine yards, and I wanted to stop, but I couldn't. A trip to the cops, or a stern talking to, would have scared me because I never meant to be "bad" yet it seemed that I always was, however it wouldn't have changed me because I couldn't stop the raging. Now I didn't do it at school, but I did scream at school with horrible panic attacks and God knows if they would have interpreted that as misbehaving. I think the most proactive way to help kids that age is to get them help. This is a six year old, not a teenager. Let the people with the medical degrees decide what's wrong, not us. I've met too many cops who plain out don't believe mental illness is ever an excuse for "bad" behavior and I know first hand that sometimes you just can't help it, so I'd leave it in the hands of more knowledgeable people than law enforcement officials. Psychiatry and Neurology isn't their field, just like a psychiatrist couldn't make an arrest. I believe the school's first move, or the police, should be to get the child help, not take out a warrant. This is a kindergartner. That's really all I have to say about the topic.
 

CsonStar

New Member
I totally agree with you on that one midwest mom ... what COULD have been done, as has been mentioned here, is taken her to be evoluated by trained professions, but it wasn't. Perhaps the gentleman handling that situation, just did what they thought was best at the time, which was removing the problem from the situation. Granted, poor little girl still gets charged and is no better than when it all happened, but the quality of life for the other childern and staff is improved, so that may have been the direction they was focusing on and figured that the mental problems was the parents problem to deal with to seek her some help. I personally would not of handled that situation in that manor, but I can almost understand their reasoning.

And I think what has come from this thread is a general message of the reason why we are all here, we ALL want our childern who are in the same boat as this little girl (if she truly does have a disorder) to find help before this becomes them. I mean, that is all we truly want right? Is for our childern to find help and lead productive lives.
 

lordhelpme

New Member
well i was the one who asked about restraints cuz my difficult child can get violent and until this feb there was no procedure in place on how to deal with-a violent outburst of a child this young(other then suspension and me come and get him).

i have been 'threatened' that my difficult child could be perceived as 'assaulting' a staff member by the union and others and "that is what we are trying to avoid". thank you mr superintendant want to repeat that in front of others?

anyway i think that the school was in the wrong for not having a procedure and spot in place to deal with-this child and i think the cops were wrong for arresting and cuffing her(protective custody is for safety)and the da needs to be reprimanded and issue a public apology at the very least.

there was a reason for this outbrust, has anyone tried to figure that out yet? won't they look stupid if she had been assaulted herself.
 

Martie

Moderator
I don't know anything about Florida, but here it is the policy (or not) of the newspaper to list minors who are charged with both misdemeanors and felonies. Where I live, the paper lists 17 and up.

Regarding what Janet said about the age of 7: In English Common Law, children under the age of 7 were not thought to have reached the age of reason, and therefore could not be held responsible for their "crimes." So far so good....However, if you were 7 in Merry Olde England, having attained reason, you would be eligible for capital punishment for such offenses as stealing bread. So the U.S. may have been the last industrialized country to (finally) prohibit the execution of minors, it certainly did not start the practice.

Martie
 
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