Mother sues police for handcuffing kids

[The Straight Story]

Mother sues police for handcuffing kids


WESTERVILLE, Ohio, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- An Ohio woman is suing police for handcuffing her children following a fight on a school bus.

Tonya Mitchell said Westerville Police officers used excessive force and violated the civil rights of her children, Mikeal Mitchell, 8, and Michelle Mitchell, 7, during the Oct. 19 incident, The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reported Wednesday.

The three officers, the school district's transportation service, Pointview Elementary School and administrators are named in the suit, which asks for an award of $1.5 million. Tonya Mitchell says her children have nightmares and fear police.

School records say the children were charged with delinquency counts of disorderly conduct when they pushed the bus driver and threatened their school principal. The charges were dismissed because of their age, but both were expelled from school for 80 days.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/11/23/Mother-sues-police-for-handcuffing-kids/UPI-45671322105292/

[NYC_SKP]

1. Hmmmmmm. Well....

I wasn't there.

Hard to form a fair opinion about this but 7 and 8 are pretty young for handcuffs, yet children are remarkably capable of some considerable nastiness even at that tender age.


Hmmmmm.

[DJ13]

2. I think the $1.5m damage is a tad higher than warranted

[teddy51]

3. Seems like some mandatory parental classes are in order here,

As a 7/8 year old, you should not be pushing anyone.

[Catherine Vincent]

4. Were that afraid of a 7 and 8 year old?

I don't think the handcuffs were necessary.

[sabrina 1]

5. I cannot imagine under any circumstances, the need to do that

to a child. As a teacher of that age group and having had some extremely difficult children that 'no one else wanted to deal with', I could not even imagine resorting to or even thinking about, doing something like that. That is abuse. Failure, on the part of all the adults involved. Shame on them.

What is this country becoming?

[minavasht]

7. Well,

where were you when this was happening?
Cops do not engage in parenting, they enforce the laws and preserve the peace.
Parenting is a job reserved for the parents.

[sabrina 1]

10. This is how we slide into the acceptance of the unacceptable

Authorities do something that is unthinkable until they do it. Then a few people decide they had no other choice and argue for what they would not have dreamed of doing themselves.

This was wrong and totally unnecessary. Cops have been dealing with children, out of control children sometimes, lost children, abused children, all kinds of children, ever since there have been cops. Millions of cops in every country in the world have managed to deal with them without resorting to this kind of abuse.

Shame on the cop and shame on the adults who stood by and said nothing.

[minavasht]

12. Being experienced with such kids -

what would you do?
You get called to a school bus stop, and the driver tells you two of the kids pushed him while driving.
The kids are out of control, the other kids want to go home, parents are calling to see where their kids are, the two are still jumping up and down, trying to run in traffic - what do you do in this case? Hug them? Sing "Kumbaya" ? Give them a red star?
Millions of cops deal with kids every day without problems. Sometimes there are problems and the cops have to deal with it. Would you prefer if they were pepper sprayed? Or tazed?
The school decided to kick them out for 80 days, I guess all the teachers there should be ashamed too.

[minavasht]

6. Maybe it is good that they finally fear something

maybe they should sue the mother of the kids for failing to teach them basic rules.
I am sure this is not the first time they had to deal with her offspring.

[sabrina 1]

11. Maybe the best way to teach children, is NOT to abuse them.

You are advocating 'scaring' children? For what purpose? Have you ever been around children? You sound as though you don't like kids, which is fine, but in that case, maybe let those who know how to handle these kinds of situations do so. That cop eg, should not be allowed near children from now on.

Surprised he didn't use pepper spray, which you might think of as a good idea also.

No wonder this country has so many problem kids. So many adults believing that abuse is the way to 'control' and 'discipline' them.

[minavasht]

13. Children

need to learn how to behave in society. There are rules of conduct, which apparently nobody bothered to teach those two yet.
You are free to have your beliefs about raising children and I hope you will contact that family and help them deal with their issues.
I think this country has so many problem kids because so many adults believe discipline is bad for the kids and hurts their feelings.

[emcguffie]

14. Handcuffs are inappropriate for such small children.

In fact, they are inappropriate for all children.

I don't know any adults who couldn't handle such small children without resorting to handcuffs. I don't know where you are coming from, but I think you are utterly wrong.

[minavasht]

17. So

Handling them is OK ( I assume you mean physically grabbing and holding them) but handcuffing them is not? How is that any different?
And dear mommy will not sue the hell out of you for laying hands on her precious ones?

Like I said, feel free to contact them and be on standby for the next time they push or hit somebody. Then go and do your thing.

And yes, I've dealt with unruly kids. And they all had one thing in common - nobody had ever tried to discipline them, or god forbid, lay a hand on them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. As a medic who dealt with more than a few scared children

Cuffs were not used...and restraints on any patient when medically indicated.

Nope two out of control kids are not cuffed...

This s the kind of punishment aproved in totalitarian states. What's next? Shooting them or whipping them? Careful of that thinking.

[minavasht]

16. Scared does not equal out of control

[Webster Green]

8. I wonder if they showed up in swat or riot gear.

Cops are turning into real wussies these days. They're scared of everything.

[Douglas Carpenter]

9. I'm about as lax and libertine as they come especially when it comes to children

-but if the children are out of control and were in fact doing as reported -pushing the bus driver and threatening their principal - they have to be restrained some how. I have no problems with this action if the the claims are correct - which I have no way of knowing. It is all fine and dandy to refer the children and the parents for psychological help - but in the mean time both the children and the parents need to be threatened and frightened into compliance. Once the out of control parents and children are no longer a threat to others then it will be possible to examine underlying problems that need to be corrected. Of course since none of us know these people and none of us were there - none of us really know what happened and thus none of use really know what can and should be done. But if the report is correct - the use of force is appropriate in the short term until a long term solution is worked out.