The police chief in Milledgeville, Ga., today stood by his officer’s decision to handcuff a 6-year-old girl and hold her at the police station after she became unruly in principal’s office of her school.
“The student was never placed in a holding cell or jail cell and the student’s safety was of the utmost importance,” Police Chief Dray Swicord said today.
Salecia Johnson, 6, was sent to the principal’s office for pushing two other students and throwing items off her teacher’s desk, according to the police report.
The child didn’t go to the principal’s office without a fight. ”Johnson refused to go inside and began running down the hallway screaming,” the report stated.
Once she finally entered Principal Dianne Popp’s office at Creekside Elementary School, the kindergarten student allegedly tore items off the walls and threw furniture, striking her principal in the leg. She also jumped on a paper shredder, tried to break a glass frame and bit the door knob in an effort to escape, police said.
After several unsuccessful attempts to contact her parents, Salecia’s hands were placed behind her back and cuffed.
The responding officer cuffed the kindergartener “for the student’s safety as well as others,’” Swicord said.
She was transported to the Milledgeville Police Department where the handcuffs were removed. The girl was placed in a patrol briefing room and given something to drink, Swicord said.
Salecia’s aunt, Candace Ruff, was reached by police and agreed to pick up her niece at the station.
“She was very scared because she said she was alone by herself and couldn’t get out. She was terrified,” Ruff said.
The kindergartener was charged with simple assault and criminal damage to property.
Due to her age, she will not be prosecuted, but her case will be turned over to social services for any assistance she may need, Swicord said.
The girl’s family is furious that law enforcement got involved in what they viewed as a school disciplinary issue. ”What is the purpose of counselors and other aides in the school system when they just call law enforcement to calm a child when they act out?” Ruff said.
Creekside Elementary was unable to be reached for comment.
Salecia has been suspended for the rest of the school year, Ruff said.
“I really doubt her parents would like to send her back [to Creekside Elementary],” she said.
April 18, 2012 at 1:40 pm
This is an absolutely irresponsible and clearly inappropriate response by the school, e.g., calling the cops on a small child and then the police handcuffing Salecia and placing the little girl in the backseat of a cop car.
Little Salecia is definitely traumatized and if her skin color was different, this would never have occurred. Who puts a child that young in cuffs and hauls her off to jail like she’s a hardened criminal? The school officials and the police need better training on responding to such situations.
Very disturbing, especially since the little girl is being charged with criminal conduct and being swept into the legal system at such a young age. I hope her family gets a lawyer and sues the school for intentional infliction of emotional distress.
A similar incident happened in St. Petersberg, FL involving another little African-American old girl some years ago, who was only five years old, and who was also in kindergarden at the time.
Desiree Watson was arrested, cuffed and put in back of a police cruiser after an outburst at school where the little girl allegedly threw books and boxes, kicked a teacher in the shins, smashed a candy dish, hit an assistant principal in the stomach and drew on the walls.
The kindergardeners were counting jelly beans as part of a math exercise at Fairmount Park Elementary School when a teacher took away Desiree’s jelly beans, outraging the child.
Minutes later, the 40-pound girl was in the back of a police cruiser, under arrest for battery. Her hands were bound with plastic ties, her ankles in handcuffs.
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First it was the mass incarceration of African-African boys and men, and now, a growing number of African-American girls and women are being targeted and incarcerated in the prison system.
April 18, 2012 at 1:59 pm
CORRECTION:
Jaisha Scott, age five, is the name of the other little African-American girl who was handcuffed in her classroom by police, in St. Petersburg, FL.
April 18, 2012 at 4:41 pm
For the safety of those around this child, it was a hard call, but necessary. We are not familiar with the emotional problems this child may face, we don’t know if she has been diagnosed with mental disorders. At any time this child could have picked up any object and use as a weapon against those around her. The article also doesnt state if the officers called where in fact school police.
April 19, 2012 at 5:05 am
I wonder how much longer we will tollerate this kind of treatment. I’ve seen children in the Mall from other communities throw temper tantrums act a fool, never heard of the Police being called and the child being handcuffed. The sad thing is if this child was such a problem why wasn’t the Parents called to come and get their child. No this is what happens when the discipline is taken out of the home and we allow people who don’t look like us and call themselves experts to tell us how our children should be raise and disciplined. We are going backwards fast, because if we don’t address the Justice System in this country we will become just like the Native Americans and maybe worst.
April 19, 2012 at 6:49 am
I would like to know what exactly happened in that classroom on that day that triggered Salecia to behave the way she did.
Who or what exactly provoked little Salecia? Did the teacher lose his or hercool and escalate the situation? Nobody is talking about that. We need more facts.
Handcuffing a small child that young, who is barely in kindergarden, and barely starting off in school – as a form of disciplinary conduct or punishment is cruel and beyond any bounds of decency. It seems what should be the last response (handcuffs and jail), as it pertains to children is become the first response.
The school allegedly attempted to call her parents. I find that hard to believe here. Exactly how many times did the school make an attempt to call the parents? Just once?
Usually, other relatives or family friends are listed on the contact form and available to be reached on the child’s emergency form in the event someone needs to be reached in an emergency situation like this. What other interventions were exercised to try and calm the child down before summoning cops? The staff and administration at this school have a lot of explaining to do.
Teachers who are teaching kindergarden-aged children (a small child, like Salecia, who is in school for the first time) know full well that children adjust to the classroom environment at different stages and being away from her mommy or daddy can cause this sort of acting out.
That’s why I say that this is beyond extreme to cuff the child, what threat does she pose exactly? I get that she may have been frustrated and probably threw Elmo or some legos around the room, but poor staff training is to blame for not diffusing that situation earlier. Often police are so eager to arrest someone, they sometimes don’t care if its even a small child who is only six years old.
This is a very young child we are talking about here, not an older child.
Absolutely outrageous:
A six year old African-American girl throws a tantrum in her kindergarden class and is subsequently handcuff, arrested and hauled off to jail in the backseat of a police car that same day. She is then immediately charged with assault and damaging property.
On the other hand, a grown adult white man stalks an unarmed African-American child with a gun, shots and kills that child like an animal, and there is no charges filed, no arrests, no time in jail until after “public outcry” and over a month and half later?
Who exactly is protecting our children?
April 21, 2012 at 1:03 am
My daughter was cuffed by school police this time last year in Palm Springs at age 14. The school knew my daughter has focal point epilepsy which results in her face contorting and aimless walking, coupled with an inability to respond to commands. I’m a health care professional so at the beginning of every school year, I train school staff as to how to handle such situations, emphasizing to them to simply let the episode run it’s course, make sure she doesn’t run into the street and above all, unless she’s going to hurt herself (like running into traffic), don’t get close or touch her, or her brain in that state, will feel threatened and she WILL become combative. She had an episode, the VP was called. She yell at her to sit down during class and when she didn’t respond, what did they do? Call campus security who brought her to the ground and cuffed her. Security called PSPD who called an ambulance. Thank God the ambulance driver recognized her state immediately and took her to the local hospital, where the ER doctor happened to be a brother who had a daughter with special needs too.
Long story shorter, we don’t live in Palm Springs any more and the former school district is paying for a diverse, private school specific to her needs, in LA where we now reside. My daughter is doing fantastic now!
Be well,
Alice