Florida school defends handcuffing seven-year-old boy with special needs
Mother criticizes school after boy is restrained and taken to a mental health facility
A Florida school security officer handcuffed a seven-year-old boy with special needs and had him taken to a mental health facility, a decision the boy’s mother is criticizing but school officials are defending.
It’s the second time in weeks Florida officials have been criticized for restraining a young child for having an emotional meltdown at school.
Tyeisha Harmon of Clearwater told reporters her son, who has emotional issues and is supposed to have a structured environment, acted out in class last Wednesday at Belcher Elementary School. She said he recently changed classrooms, which triggered him.
What exactly happened in the classroom isn’t known. Harmon says the school called her but by the time she arrived her son had been taken to a mental health facility. She said he was examined and released four hours later. Showing her marks on his wrists, he told her he was handcuffed before being driven away in a police car.
“To handcuff him and put him in the backseat – not only did you handcuff him but you did it so tightly that it left marks on his hands and he’s seven. What’s he going to do? He’s seven and in the backseat,” Harmon told WFTS-TV.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/09/florida-school-handcuffs-seven-year-old-boy
I just gotta ask on pages 6 and 7 of this funding plan, I did not see anything in there for special need students........................
https://www.flgov.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Budget-Highlights-Master-.pdf
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