6 year old handcuffed & charged for 'temper tantrum'

[Camy]

A girl of six has been handcuffed by police and thrown in a jail cell in the US after throwing a tantrum at school.

Kindergarten student Salecia Johnson, of Milledgeville, Georgia, is accused of throwing books and toys during the outburst.

According to a police report, the child allegedly knocked over a small shelf which hit the principal of Creekside Elementary School in the leg, injuring her.

She also jumped on a paper shredder and tried to break a glass frame, the report continued

The school called in the police and an officer handcuffed the young girl when she refused to calm down.

She was taken down to the police station where she was charged with simple assault and damage to property.

Read the complete article

To say that I'm gobsmacked would be an understatement. Mind you, better that than the teacher being arrested for spanking her and making her stand in the corner for an hour.

[JamesSavik]

Kid Tamer 2012

Comes with 10 darts of 30 milligrams of Valium ™: 5 for the kids, 5 for the parents.

[Merkin]

Merkin

I have no idea what was on my mind when I posted this.

[Cole Parker]

I think I related here an incident in the school where I help out that this same thing happened to a 6-year-old boy. I thought it horrible too, till I heard about all the destruction he caused. He was totally uncontrollable. Anyone who grabbed him got bitten. He was throwing stuff, and just completely wild. It took two cops to subdue him, and they too handcuffed him behind his back.

I guess until you deal with this sort of thing, you just have no idea. But you have to realize, cops don't want to handcuff a kid. It's a last resort and it protects the kid from hurting himself as much as it protects property and other people.

You all know, I'm as much an advocate of kids as anyone around. I would guess in this case, this was justified.

C

[dude]

She was taken down to the police station where she was charged with simple assault and damage to property.

I wonder if she'll be charged as an adult?

Seriously, though, although concerns were raised about how the scene of her arrest and being led away in handcuffs might affect other children... I find just the opposite. It seems a lesson in personal accountability which all children must learn sometime in their lives is provided here... something her parents, obviously, did not provide.

[blue]

If this gets across the lesson that there are consequences for bad behavior, for treating people badly or hurting them, then it seems to me a little object lesson might be just the thing. The child isn't harmed, just detained, and shown that if you act mean, do bad, you might end up somewhere you don't want to be.

I have to admit I found James' solution worth a chuckle too, especially the part about half the doses being for the parents for not teaching their kids better.