Police Handcuff 5-Year-Old After Tantrum

[Tara]

I forgot to show you guys this ridiculous story. I actually spotted it on BET news and planned on sharing it when I had the time, but whatever, it's here now.

Here's the story, click

In the story, it talks about how the teacher was video-taping her class to learn how to teach better and see what methods work and what don't.

Here's the video, click

(there are also videos of the girl getting hand-cuffed on the same link as the video)

Do you really think a five-year-old needed to be handcuffed? I mean, is there ever a time when you think that a five year old would need such discipline?

[littlepea]

i watched the video on the st petersburg times website, and honestly, i could be a better teacher than them, they just look so stupid following her around telling her "you can't do that" all the time while she gradually makes more and more of a mess let's hope they learned that that method doesn't work ...

are teachers so afraid to touch the pupils themselves that they have to phone the police? and then the police are so stupid the only thing they can think of doing is hand-cuffing her? i mean, come on, you wouldn't do that to your own kids ...

honestly, i'm speechless

[Tara]

Actually littlepea, yeah. People have gotten in trouble for grabbing children and being accused of shaking them and all in the U.S. Even parents are afraid to physically discipline their children such as spanking b/c they are afraid someone will call an agency such as DCF (Department of Children and Families).

[psyence]

Yeah, that's pretty crazy. But, then again, I think what they had on their mind was: "either cuff her or let the kid destroy the classroom"... either way, handcuffs were a crazy resort. I think you take more risk cuffing the child than restraining them physically with a firm hold. Wrong decision made here.

[Tigress]

I've babysat kids 100x more hyper and destructive than that kid and I never once had to use handcuffs or anything of the sort. That's just ridiculousness. I suggest some classes for that teacher to teach her (heh) how to better handle young children.

[Tara]

Well, the funny thing about that, Tiger, is that she was videotaping her class so that she could observe her methods of teaching and see if there were other ways to do such.

But what pissed me off was that it took 3 officers, not one.

I've never seen 3 adults gang up on a small child.

[PhantomsPandora]

I think that it's a sad resort, but they said that it wasn't the first time that the cops had been out there. The mother had to have known her kid was acting out at school. Behavior like that, well I'm sorry, that just wouldn't be tolerated at my house, nor would it have been tolerated at the elementary school I went to. Period. When I was growing up, the principal had the authority to paddle an out of line student, and my parents had no objections. That was a last resort though and never happened while I was there. Point is, we all knew that we had to act in line. Now where that child got it in her head to act out like that, I just don't know. She could have severely harmed herself, the teacher , or the students around her. Yes, it is ridiculous, but the school was probably afraid of being sued.

I dont' know what the teacher was thinking-but whatever she would have done would have been critisized by somebody, knowing our country and our differing opinions of what is right or wrong discipline wise. Again, it's just sad when a teacher ceases to worry about her classroom and has to worry when she's going to be sued or not.

I totally agree her in the cop car was going to far..but if the staff had come in to restrain her...they might have got bit, kicked, who knows. A very unfortunate situation all around.

[Tara]

PhantomsPandora said:

I think that it's a sad resort, but they said that it wasn't the first time that the cops had been out there. The mother had to have known her kid was acting out at school. Behavior like that, well I'm sorry, that just wouldn't be tolerated at my house, nor would it have been tolerated at the elementary school I went to. Period.

Well, we really can't say if we know all the details. The girl could have had bad things happen to her and she doesn't know how to express it. Maybe her mom is an only mom and she has to work extra hours to make money and keep food on the table. Maybe the mom has problems of her own that weren't addressed when she was younger and may not know how to properly raise her daughter. Who knows? It could have been anything. Maybe she has ADD and cannot concentrate in class very long. Perhaps her mom cannot afford an alternative type of schooling or it's not offered in that area.

Maybe the teachers were just rude. I've had teachers like that before from 2nd grade to fifth. And honestly, I caused similar trouble because where I was going to school, the teachers only taught to get paid. They didn't attempt to connect with the students and I hated that b/c I have always wanted to get to know my teachers and have them get to know me, not pre-judge me. Communication between parents and teachers wasn't all that great. It was more policing than actual learning. And all sorts of factors go into that, most of the time it's the scenarios I've mentioned before, bad family scenarios.

And if that were the situation with this school system then I can see why that happend. But like I said before, we don't know all the details and we'll probably never know.

Now just imagine what her and her mom has to go through now.

[littlepea]

the teachers in my primary school (school for 4-11 year olds) were mostly decent, though they didn't teach us much other than reading, writing and arithmetic (the 3 R's) the rest was play time, like painting and stuff. it was good fun, i quite enjoyed primary school (especially the football team, though the coach was a snatch ... there's a long story behind that and it brings me close to tears when i think about it, but i won't bother just now). the teachers were mostly nice and friendly, though there were one or two exceptions ...

then i went to private secondary school (12-18 year olds) and expected the teachers to be amazing cos it was private education ... they weren't, the majority of them were just bastards, the only thing different from state school was the curriculum - they made us learn the subjects very well so we did well in exams (which is what the parents paid the money for) but most of them didn't want to know you. it was also weird because there were lots of male teachers in secondary school, whereas in primary school i was only ever taught by women.

as i got into my final years and started choosing the subjects i liked, i met a couple of amazing teachers. the best was my latin teacher: i kept doing classics - latin and greek - just so i could spend as much time getting taught by him as possible. by the end i was doing such obscure courses that there was either only 2 of us in the class or it was just 1 on 1 tutoring, it was fantastic. sometimes we wouldn't even bother opening a book, we'd just sit and talk about philosophy and politics and stuff (he was always pleased when i disagreed with him ). we still keep in touch a bit by e-mail (he likes the internet) though i haven't contacted him in a few months ...


my other best teachers were my maths teachers in my final years. just two of them (a man and an old lady who kept talking about her grandchildren ;D she was dude), but they enjoyed having a laugh with us, and we responded my treating them with the utmost respect - that's how teaching should be done in my opinion.

the worst teacher i ever had was my maths teacher in my first two years at that school, a complete fool of a woman. she tried making jokes and being a bit sarcastic to the pupils for kicks, but when we answered back she got angry and told us off straight away ... well i wasn't standing for that and even though i was 11 when i started i was answering back to her constantly and she would send me out the classroom all the time, but i was right and she knew it (she never gave me any actual punishment, just a telling off every now and then which didn't bother me - she never gave me lines, detention or sent me to the principal's office or anything). she was still around while i was finishing school and she was still the same (i helped out at open days in the last year and she was hanging around the maths base still telling pupils off, even though they volunteered to stay late and help out ... what a b*tch). i kept this up all throughout school, though nobody was as bad as she was (and i never got punishment for retaliating). the teachers who liked me called it "flair", the ones who didn't ... well, i got straight A's, so how could they give me a bad report?

sorry to completely change the subject, but i was reminded of all my time at school ... sometimes i wish i could go back to those days because the work was so much easier than at uni (and also for personal reasons, but talking about that would really be straying off-topic ... )

[Tara]

You mentioned your best teachers being math teachers. I have to disagree with you on that one. lol Most of my favorite teachers were English teachers. My worst experiences were with math and spanish (language) teachers.

(sometimes it's hard not to go off-topic, you shoulda started this somewhere else! lol)

[littlepea]

my worst teacher ever was a maths teacher, and my best teacher ever was a latin teacher, but i also had 2 very good maths teachers in my last two years ... i'm sure the subject is irrelevant, if they're a good teacher then they're a good teacher