Florida's finest at work

[RougeUnderoos]

This is really quite amazing stuff. Cops in St. Petersburg get called to an elementary school to deal with a tantrum-throwing 5 year old girl. They put their heads together and decide to cuff her.

The odds of three people being this dumb working in the same police department and getting dispatched to the same call have to be astronomical.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4475513.stm

I saw the video earlier on PBS. When they cuff the girl it's like a scene from COPS. Except that she's 5.

A good round of firings in St. Petersburg should come out of this I hope.

[Incinerator]

*sigh* a black eye for the entire law enforcement community

[transplant99]

I saw the video as well last night and was just dumbfounded.

Why not just taser and mace the kid? I mean with the fight she was putting up by just sitting in a chair, scared out of her mind, should of justified it!!

Simply unbelievable, and i HAVE to think it is NOT protocol to handcuff a 5 year old girl.....no matter WHAT the offense.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Transplant I don't know which video you were able to see, but I didn't see a little girl sitting in her chair when the police officers came in to deal with the situation. The little brat was punching people, jumping on desks and basically attempting to rip apart the classroom. The issue is what options did the school have.

The first option I can think of is having the teachers attempt to restrain the child. There are problems assocaited with this the most notable being that teachers are not trained to use physical force against a child, thus increasing the possibility that something would go wrong, and have even more serious consiquences for all parties involved.

The second option is to weather the storm if you will and allow the child to just stop wrecking things, and to stop being a brat. The problem here is at what point does that stop, and what behaviours does that reinforce. I think it says a lot when the mother doesn't agknowledge that her child did something wrong in any of the articles I have read and actually said that the school "set my baby up". It might say something about the level of disipline which is given by the school system.

The third option was to call the police, and this is the obvious negatives attached to this option.

[moon]

hey
i have always said and especially since being down in the states:

Don't screw around with American cops.

they don't give a crap they will cuff you, beat you, arrest you. Doesn't matter who you are. even if you are a five year old girl.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally posted by moon@Apr 23 2005, 08:42 AM
hey
i have always said and especially since being down in the states:

Don't screw around with American cops.

they don't give a crap they will cuff you, beat you, arrest you. Doesn't matter who you are. even if you are a five year old girl.

Yes all police officers in the USA are the same bas**rds are they not. Actually I am fairly certain that is one of the requirements for getting onto a police force down there, you have to be a bas**rd.

Sorry but there are bad people in every profession, and well to judge an entire profession on those people is foolish and ignorant.

[Table 5]

that kid just needed a good spanking.

[moon]

Originally posted by Mean Mr. Mustard+Apr 23 2005, 08:47 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Mean Mr. Mustard @ Apr 23 2005, 08:47 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-moon@Apr 23 2005, 08:42 AM
hey
i have always said and especially since being down in the states:

Don't screw around with American cops.

they don't give a crap they will cuff you, beat you, arrest you. Doesn't matter who you are. even if you are a five year old girl.

Yes all police officers in the USA are the same bas**rds are they not. Actually I am fairly certain that is one of the requirements for getting onto a police force down there, you have to be a bas**rd.

Sorry but there are bad people in every profession, and well to judge an entire profession on those people is foolish and ignorant. [/b][/quote]
I am not saying that they are bas**rds. I am saying that because of the violence down here and the risks that they take they don't take chances.

When they pull people over they have the chance of getting shot out attacked, much more than cops do uphere. So they take precautions that cops in Canada more often do not because they do not run into the same situations as often.

I know you feel the need t freak if someone even hints at the cops not being great individuals but calm down a bit. I wasn't implying that, this time.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Sorry I just took it that the wrong way....

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally posted by Mean Mr. Mustard@Apr 23 2005, 09:40 AM
Transplant I don't know which video you were able to see, but I didn't see a little girl sitting in her chair when the police officers came in to deal with the situation. The little brat was punching people, jumping on desks and basically attempting to rip apart the classroom. The issue is what options did the school have.

The first option I can think of is having the teachers attempt to restrain the child. There are problems assocaited with this the most notable being that teachers are not trained to use physical force against a child, thus increasing the possibility that something would go wrong, and have even more serious consiquences for all parties involved.

The second option is to weather the storm if you will and allow the child to just stop wrecking things, and to stop being a brat. The problem here is at what point does that stop, and what behaviours does that reinforce. I think it says a lot when the mother doesn't agknowledge that her child did something wrong in any of the articles I have read and actually said that the school "set my baby up". It might say something about the level of disipline which is given by the school system.

The third option was to call the police, and this is the obvious negatives attached to this option.

The first option, as I see it, is "Don't Use Handcuffs". After that you've got plenty of options.

"Weather the storm" is probably the best way to go about it and don't give me any of that "what behaviors does it re-enforce" business. Believe me, she'll peter out real quick if everyone else stops freaking out. Sure she may tear a few more things off the bulletin board and stomp on the desk but I think everyone could get over that eventually.

That inept woman was obviously making it worse.

The cops were just ######s.

[CaptainCrunch]

jesus what stupidity.

First of all that teacher could have prevented the whole thing, by I don't know asserting herself, the principle could have dragged the little brat to the office and made her burn off some energy in a more constructive manner.

The mother should have made arrangements to get the kid home, that kids got to be her first priority.

Social services and not the cops should have been called

Fire the teacher, fire the principle, suspend the cops without pay for a month, send the kid to the wood shed, teach the kids mother how to dicipline her kid.

Write a check for 5 bucks to the mother.

Problem solved.

[jonesy]

It is naive to think that a teacher could look crossly at a student much less have any physical contact. ie: drag to office etc. Grabbing by the arm would net them an abuse case.

Imagine you are the teacher, what would you do if you can't use any physical force? The kid isn't just going to go away. All the other children suffer during her tantrums. If you 'ride it out' then get ready for repeat perforomances by her and others who see how effective it is.

I don't know what i am trying to say, but i just feel like this was a no win situation for the teacher. We strip them of any authority over the pupils and expect them to keep a mode of decorum. Pfffft, the kids can see through that in a minute.

[CaptainCrunch]

You don't have to have physical contact to be assertive with a 5 year old kid. And if the kid can't be controlled then you put her back in the hands of her parents and don't let her come back to school until she's under control.

Most of our best teachers would establish that there was no screwing around on the first day, and they could enforce it with a look and a word.


Thats what they did in our day. Screw around and your going home and not coming back.

[8 Ball]

Originally posted by jonesy@Apr 23 2005, 01:15 PM
It is naive to think that a teacher could look crossly at a student much less have any physical contact. ie: drag to office etc. Grabbing by the arm would net them an abuse case.

Imagine you are the teacher, what would you do if you can't use any physical force? The kid isn't just going to go away. All the other children suffer during her tantrums. If you 'ride it out' then get ready for repeat perforomances by her and others who see how effective it is.

I don't know what i am trying to say, but i just feel like this was a no win situation for the teacher. We strip them of any authority over the pupils and expect them to keep a mode of decorum. Pfffft, the kids can see through that in a minute.

Restraining a 5 year old during a tantrum where she may hurt herself or others would not result in an abuse case IMO.

The teacher and the princepal should of taken her to a room away from everyone else and allow her to calm down until the mother arrived. Then perhaps a trip to the doctors to see what is wrong with the little angel would be in order. I honestly can't beleive they phoned the police at all.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally posted by RougeUnderoos@Apr 23 2005, 06:17 AM
This is really quite amazing stuff. Cops in St. Petersburg get called to an elementary school to deal with a tantrum-throwing 5 year old girl. They put their heads together and decide to cuff her.

The odds of three people being this dumb working in the same police department and getting dispatched to the same call have to be astronomical.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4475513.stm

I saw the video earlier on PBS. When they cuff the girl it's like a scene from COPS. Except that she's 5.

A good round of firings in St. Petersburg should come out of this I hope.

Didn't read the rest of the thread so I'm sure someone else mentioned this, but there was an incident somewhere else where a 6 yr old boy was cuffed by the cops at school too. Pretty fricking sad.

[CaramonLS]

Sorry I'm going to have to side with the teacher on this one, she couldn't touch the kid without a lawsuit coming her way, I'm sorry, but this is the US and she did the best option.

Theres obviously more that this kid did that what was just on the video. They CALLED THE COPS, its gotta be a pretty freaking serious tantrum to call the cops if the parent was only going to be gone for an hour.

Might as well scare the crap out of her by putting her in cuffs and causing her massive embarassment. I highly doubt the parents have any control over this child.

Being "assertive" is nice in theory, but I'm sorry, not every teacher/student confrontation can be solved so easily.

They should have tossed her in a holding cell for good measure.

[transplant99]

Sorry I'm going to have to side with the teacher on this one, she couldn't touch the kid without a lawsuit coming her way, I'm sorry, but this is the US and she did the best option.

Calling the police evrytime a child throws a temper tantrum, is hardly the best option IMO. A ridiculous waste of police resources.

Why not let her just carry on ripping papers until the mother could make it?

Also, corporal punishment is still allowed in Florida. There were way better options for the teachers than what they did. They should be fired right now.

The cops are as stupid as the teachers as well...i mean seriously...handcuffs for a 5 year old child throwing a temper tantrum???

Absolutely ridiculous.

[CaramonLS]

Originally posted by transplant99@Apr 23 2005, 11:50 PM

Calling the police evrytime a child throws a temper tantrum, is hardly the best option IMO. A ridiculous waste of police resources.

Why not let her just carry on ripping papers until the mother could make it?

Also, corporal punishment is still allowed in Florida. There were way better options for the teachers than what they did. They should be fired right now.

The cops are as stupid as the teachers as well...i mean seriously...handcuffs for a 5 year old child throwing a temper tantrum???

Absolutely ridiculous.

Then start listing the options tranny. Chances are pretty good that she tried to do it.

Thats my point, you don't call the cops everytime theres a dispute, so I'm going to assume, yes assume that this kid did a little more than the little snippits we saw on the video.

It has to be pretty extreme circumstances in order to even think of justifying calling the cops. I'm sure this was cleared through multiple teachers, principals and assistants before it got to this point.

I highly doubt that this was a spur of the moment decision to call the cops, I'm sure it had to at least go through a few levels.

Teacher lays 1 hand on that girl, even if it is grabbing her arm to escort her to the office, in todays world, its a lawsuit.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally posted by CaramonLS@Apr 23 2005, 05:38 PM
Sorry I'm going to have to side with the teacher on this one, she couldn't touch the kid without a lawsuit coming her way, I'm sorry, but this is the US and she did the best option.

Theres obviously more that this kid did that what was just on the video. They CALLED THE COPS, its gotta be a pretty freaking serious tantrum to call the cops if the parent was only going to be gone for an hour.

Might as well scare the crap out of her by putting her in cuffs and causing her massive embarassment. I highly doubt the parents have any control over this child.

They should have tossed her in a holding cell for good measure.

Well it is TV so I can't imagine they cut out the "good parts" of the tantrum.

If you can't outsmart or calm down a steamed 5 year-old then you really shouldn't be a teacher or a cop.

Have you ever had to deal with a kid having a temper tantrum? Trying to restrain them tends to aggravate the situation. If you are worried about getting sued then let the desk take a couple shots and let the bulletin board take a beating until she calms down. If you are lucky, within 5 minutes you just might have her pinning the stuff back up on the bulletin board or huffing and puffing in the corner.

Might as well scare the crap out of her by putting her in cuffs and causing her massive embarassment. I highly doubt the parents have any control over this child.

They should have tossed her in a holding cell for good measure.

Are you serious? She's 5 years old for crying out loud. In kindergarten.

Treating her like an adult criminal isn't going to help anyone. The scared straight option isn't going to work on someone who is just learning to read and doesn't even know what prison is.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Option 1: Empty the room and ignore her tantrum.

She can tear the room to shreds for all I care, it's still not worth cuffing her.

Deprive her of the attention that is fuelling the tantrum and the tantrum will end.