Handcuffs in Middle School?
February 1, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
11-year-old Gunnar Moody was handcuffed by school police because he would not leave a P.E. class at Bret Harte Middle School. As reported yesterday by NBC11.com, Gunnar said that he was singing while doing sit-ups and handcuffed and dragged out when he did not respond to requests to leave.
Gunnar’s parents said what happened at Bret Harte Middle School is unacceptable. ”The bottom line he’s in phys ed. And all the kids are making noise yelling, screaming and talking and he gets singled out for going ‘la-la-la?’” Michael Moody, Gunnar’s father, said.
His mother, Laura Moody, asked a campus police officer if Gunnar had threatened anyone.
“I specifically asked the officer, ‘did he threaten you?’ She said no. I said, ‘did he threaten any other child?’ And she said no. I think there should be a better line drawn on what kind of force to use. And especially with children with disabilites,” Laura Moody said.
Gunnar has been suspended for three days.
The San Jose Unified School District issued a statement that ” The officer’s actions helped to maintain a safe atmosphere for the other 30 students in the class” and that “the use of restraints is extremely rare and would only be used when deemed absolutely necessary by the officer for the protection of the student and his other classmates.” But handcuffs on a middle school student—-I think, I know, that something else could and should have been done.
Well, that was inappropriate. For singing? It seems that, in all honesty, he was arrested for being “different”, which must be to some people “threatening”. I’m pretty sure things that are far more threatening but normal come up in that class.
Gah.
Cliff
I thought, “surely I must be reading this wrong, because they couldn’t handcuff a kid for singing in PE”, (or even getting mouthy about singing).
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” The officer’s actions helped to maintain a safe atmosphere for the other 30 students in the class” and that “the use of restraints is extremely rare and would only be used when deemed absolutely necessary by the officer for the protection of the student and his other classmates.”
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Yes. I’m sure that seeing a classmate, and particularly one with a difference, handcuffed was a great thing for the other students in the class. I have seen and heard of a lot of behavior plans, and as of yet there has not been one including handcuffs.
Unless there is MUCH more to this story, and I doubt if even that would justify it given the basic description, I hope that the press follows up or that a suit is brought against San Jose School District. This is not a good precedent to start, and part of me wonders it has already been occurring but not reported.
How about handcuffs in kindergarten?
I went to look at something and realized that there was another recent story…not autism, but still.
5-year-old boy handcuffed in school, taken to hospital for misbehaving
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/01/25/2008-01-25_5yearold_boy_handcuffed_in_school_taken_.html
Next thing you know, it’ll be tasers instead of hand cuffs.
To me, it seems as if this boils down to the teacher’s/principal’s/authority’s ignorance about how to interact with children with disabilities. When in doubt, slap the cuffs on (or something similar) and chalk it up to trying to keep others safe. It’s ignorance, and it’s infuriating.
Of course, that doesn’t have anything to do with singing for crying out loud!
I also immediately recall the case a few years ago when another 5 year old was handcuffed and arrested in Florida.
Unfortunately, this is nothing new. If others have cuffed and arrested 5 year olds in the past for acting out, then arresting an 11 year old for ‘acting weird’ should be perfectly OK, right?
Joe
While shocking in it own right, the districts reply seems par for the course. We’ve been through our own version of hell with SJUSD with violation of state and federal laws for our Aspergers child of which SJUSD is well aware of. Did they ever apologize or admit fault? it will never happen. While things are better now thanks to our child advocate and much expense of our own, his current SJUSD High School is doing a great job working with us and our son. We have to keep our guard up at all times as we know they can NEVER be at fault. The bottom line is ignorance of what these kids are about and how to deal with them.
D. Swanson
I hate just getting steamed and then moving on.
I used Google U to search “handcuffs + school + children”, and the results were sobering…the number of instances, the circumstances, the school board officially sanctioning such as a disciplinary measure, the NPR story discussing this in a rather blase way as a sign of the times.
Is not restraint the last resort in extreme circumstances rather than standard operating procedure?
So rather than saying “it happens”, I wondered what could be done. Coincidentally within the last 2 weeks 2 bills have been introduced in WA state which might serve as a potential template.
“School handcuffs scrutinized
State senator’s bill would curtail use of restraints in public schools”
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/northwest/story/269929.html
Washington state
SB 6418 – 2007-08
Requiring policies on and limiting the use of mechanical, chemical, and physical restraint of students.
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=6418&year=2007
HB 2884 – 2007-08
Requiring policies on and limiting the use of mechanical, chemical, and physical restraint of students.
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=2884&year=2007
These kinds of measures may not stop this dead in its tracks (I’m idealistic but not deluded), but legislation might explicitly delineate what is permissible, what must be reported and depending on how the bill is crafted, penalties for violations, rather than leaving it to the discretion of an individual teacher, principal, school, district or school board.
This makes me cry.
I am from San Jose, CA. My dad saw this story on the news a couple days ago and I searched for it but could not find it…thank you for highlighting it here.
The boy was interviewed on the TV news and they said he was “humming” in PE class. It caught my dad’s attention because Pete hums too, when he’s really concentrating on something. My dad said that the boy was very well-spoken when he was interviewed and said that he didn’t want to go back to school because he was too embarrassed. I haven’t read the link you posted yet, so forgive me if I’m repeating what is there.
I am just sick inside over this.
And more immediately to this particular situation, to let people know what CA law says and what their rights, their children’s right and reasonable expections are:
Restraint & Seclusion in California Schools:
A Failing Grade
Protection & Advocacy, Inc.
http://www.pai-ca.org/pubs/702301.htm#_Toc168331949
Disgusting.
I hope the family takes the offending parties to court. Singing is not a crime.
I was shocked at the tacit assumption that handcuffing is as sort of physical restraint that can be used on autistic and other disabled children—what?
Regan, any other states that you have heard of with similar legislation?
What shocks me the most about this, is that there are even cops in schools. When I was eleven, it was 1962, and I was in the sixth grade. (I had skipped a grade.) The teachers were capable of handling any problems without asisstance from armed government thugs. There was no fence around my elementary school, and I, a white kid, walked home from school in perfect safety, through the local traditionally black neighborhood. Starting at age 8 or so.
Most auties seem more rational than not; maybe somebody could have explained to the kid that he was getting on everyone else’s nerves, and *they* might get physical upon him about that?
I mean, cops in schools really *is* the Nuclear Option
And cops with handcuffs.
Umm, I should have written “assistance” in my comment above.
(Hey, I _told_ y’all I have autistic tendencies!)
This is just beyond bizarre. But, if people are finding it happening other places makes you wonder. Not good.
Kristina,
I think that I might research this further but I took the questions to folks who are more informed on school restraint, and the short version is that
a) handcuffing is not a rare event-either among children with disabilities or typical kids.
b) Statute is more often than not already on the books delineating protections beyond IDEA,
c) this statute is often ignored and accountability often takes large scale public outcry,
d) the suggestion was to very critically read existing statute and proposed legislation to make sure that the protections delineated are really on the student’s behalfs and not to provide legislative protection and amnesty to school personnel, and
e) that parents have the right to draft and submit their own legislation to their representatives and not wait for the DOEs to do so.
They admitted that it sounded very discouraging but to continue to look for ways to improve things.
Professor, all cops come with handcuffs. Cops have no place in schools.
I’m sorry, I’m an old-fashioned guy; I think that cops are a necessary evil, *at best*.
I must admit that I have to call upon them from time to time, being pretty much alone in the world, but I do not trust them.
They are humans with power over other humans, which power predictably goes right to their heads.
It’s a shame, really. I could put up with cops, if they were perfect.
But I could put up with humans if they were perfect, and then we wouldn’t need cops
My 18-month-old could have physically handled that boy; I can’t imagine why a grown man felt compelled to use handcuffs on him. And that protected the other 30 children there? What did they think that child would do–attack them with his Buddy Holly glasses? That cop was probably one of those jerks with a major jones for power who can’t get a real law-enforcement job so he ends up taking it out on people who pretty much have no power at all. That the school district would defend that behavior in such a lame and inexcusable way instead of lambasting the cop for excessive use of force is reprehensible. The parents ought to file suit. I don’t actually believe in knee-jerk litigiousness, but if some rent-a-cop cuffed my 11-year-old son for humming, it’d be either that or my getting arrested myself.
I meant “she” for the cop. It’s embarrassing to me as a woman that there are women out there who behave like this. Way to represent, girl.
Lucky me for having been born in a bygone era. When I was in 4th grade we had the President’s Physical Fitness challenge. A friend and I, who could each do hundreds of sit-ups at a time, got into a competition. The class was over. The teacher asked us to leave. Another class was coming in. There we were, ignoring the teachers, trying our best to be the one who did the most sit-ups. I figured we were going to have to stop soon, so made sure I did at least one more than her. Class was over, we were the only two in the room, refusing the teacher’s command. I think a call to our parents was threatened, which finally made us stop. I remember talking to the teacher while doing the sit-ups telling her I couldn’t possibly stop because I had to beat the other kid. I suppose we both would have been dragged off in cuffs nowadays. It makes me doubly mad that he was singing and doing sit-ups. That is just “too close to home” for me, who used to sing while doing other things at the same time, and who used to perseverate on “how many” I could do of things like jumps on the pogo stick (2018), si-tups (660 before my mom stopped me because she thought I was going to get hurt).
Clearly this officer does not understand autism! In this day and age there should be more awareness on the different needs of students in public education. It doesn’t matter if they are in general ed or special ed. If the student was not of special needs would they have handcuffed and suspended him? I think not. I am ashamed of our society and the way that they view other people that they don’t know and understand.
The handcuffs come with the cop, any cop! What’s wrong is the very existence of cops in schools. (or society, for that matter)
The police, to paraphrase Sam Clemens, are un-American, un-English, and French. That is why there were no cops in any English-speaking country until 1830 or so. Bobby Peel promised they’d never bully the citizens like those guys in France. They didn’t, for a while, but now have more than caught up with them.
This is what happens when you take God from our schools and you allow the police to do his job. My child was removed from his school and the effects have been devastating he is lacking the structure he needs all because of a lack of understanding This is crazy
Emily
Its not the cops fault, its the arrogance of the administarators of the school thats causing his problem nor that their is aproblem of any kind in school instead of school adminstartors finding the underlying cause of it They just call the cops and that will fix everything or they will send him home for thirty days because they dont want to deal with it
Emily
Its not the cops fault, its the arrogance of the administarators of the school thats causing this problem It seems that every time their is problem at school nor that their is aproblem of any kind in school instead of school adminstrators sending a psychologist to find the underlying cause of it They just call the cops and that veleive that will fix everything . Its crazy
As a parent to a child in Bret Harte, I have seen the campus cops many a times…..they are overzealous to the extreme.
I have also dealt with several teachers and the principal as well. Though it does vary from teacher to teacher, I will say that the principal is a kind and concerned person. I am grateful for the job he does. I am sure he will get to the bottom of this and make things right. If that cop was wrong (and we don’t know the whole story), I believe that the principal will not allow such disgrace and will get to the bottom of this and make things right.
I would like to find out more and hope that this was a massive misunderstanding—–are the cops on the school campus due to other kinds of safety issues?
I would like to know what the resolution is on this, because unless I am wrong, police don’t just normally show up on a campus unless they are either requested or are in place as part of the staffing.
If they are part of the staffing,
a. what is the policy/reason that puts them there,
b. what is the state law and district regulation/policy, i.e., what is permissible under what circumstance and how is that and process defined, esp. in regards to override of a behavior plan in IEP,
c. who decides that and has authority, and is there authority to deescalate and withdraw once the officers are called,
d. ultimately, who is responsible, reportable, accountable, as well as how, and
e. what are due-process rights and restitution for ANY parent besides personal lawsuit?
I have no doubt that if the police are in place for a reason (zero-tolerance, drug, alcohol, or violence policy, etc.), now the matter is whether this authority for this kind of thing is granted explicitly or by omission, or whether it was an overstepping of regulation.
I sort of wonder what is going on with school wide positive behavioral support?
The cop did it. That makes it proximally the cop’s fault.
And I don’t actually see what the presence or absence of God has to do with it.
Police are a regular fixture at the schools in SJUSD, Junior and Senior High schools, I don’t know when they started the process but its been that way for quite some time, partially to keep “other” kids from other schools from wandering through and a general presence of authority, it supposedly helps keep the gang element from wandering through and looking for trouble as well. As far as the school bringing in there own psychologist for these situations… we’ve met some of them, Inadequate in their understanding of these kids is putting it nicely…. not a clue, they don’t get it.
Police are certainly a regular part of the schools in Jersey City where I teach, not in the district where we live. (I have family in the SJ area—-but don’t know a lot myself about the area.)
There is no more to the story… the news said it all, well minus the few other comments SJUSD said as well as the police officier. Gunnar would never hurt a fly, he is the kindest most gentle 11 year old. This is not the last you will hear of this case.
There IS more to the story. I was a student in his PE class when this happened. I do believe that the police officer was wrong in handcuffing Gunnar, but still the story is a tad twisted here. First of all, we were stretching when this happened. No one was talking except him, he was singing (i guess you could call it humming) at the top of his lungs. The teacher asked calmly if he would go outside, because that is what the teacher ws instructed to do. Gunnar refused every time the teacher asked (which was about 5 times). Finally the teacher asked him if he would go to L12 (the responsibility center aka detention during the class period) but Gunnar persisted. The teacher then contacted somebody at L12 (who we found out was a police officer when she entered the room
). She then asked Gunnar, GENTLEY, if he would come with her. She repeated this numerous times but he did not respond. She then warned him that if neccessary she would handcuff him and embarrass him in front of all his classmates.He still decided to be stubborn. After that the story is the same, but I just feel like the interview most people saw on the news was misleading.
Ok, anonymous, I’ll stipulate that he was getting on the other kids’ nerves. He didn’t stop doing so, after being told to stop several times. Still no excuse for a cop. The teacher should have hoicked him up by the back of the shirt, hauled him to the Principal’s office, and called Mom and Dad to come get him, then talk about it with them later. I think that’s how it would have gone down when I was a kid, in the fifties and sixties.
Hell honey, that’s how it would have gone down when I was a kid in the 80s and 90s.
Oh yeah, and if I were Principal (unlike the scary Nazi-like principals I had) I would allow him to hide under my desk until Mom or Dad arrived.
Quote: “I specifically asked the officer, ‘did he threaten you?’ She said no. I said, ‘did he threaten any other child?’ And she said no.
Why the fuck were handcuffs being used? And in a bloody school, of all places?!
In it just me thinking this is so, or is the world becoming a more bloody ridiculously stupid place than it previously was?
OMG!!! LIES!!! I WAS THERE HE WAS YELLING WHILE DOING WARMUPS AND NO ONE WAS TALKING!!!
Once police are involved, the school is not. I agree that it may not have been the best way to handle it, but we can not discourage schools from getting police involved when they feel they need to. I have seen some crazy things in school buildings and teachers are very hesitant to call the police for anything. I am sure it was becoming a tense situation. Remember, not all kids are like your kids… some students see another student distracting the teacher and decide that it is a good time to start a fight. What do you do if you have a few students like that and one who will not leave and will not stop. It is a tough situation.