Posted on 04/26/2005 5:02:47 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
ST. PETERSBURG - The mother of the 5-year-old girl who was handcuffed at school by police has withdrawn her daughter from Pinellas public schools and is moving out of state, superintendent Clayton Wilcox said Monday night.
The development was the latest in a bizarre saga that began Friday, when a videotape of the handcuffing was made public.
Since then, wrenching video images of the wailing kindergartener being handcuffed by St. Petersburg police have raced around the globe, airing and re-airing on television news shows in the United States, Great Britain, Spain, around Asia and beyond.
On Monday morning, the Largo lawyer representing the girl's mother appeared on five network news shows. He returned wearily to his office to find a fax from the mother, 24-year-old Inga Akins, stating he had been fired. The fax had been sent from the tabloid TV show A Current Affair, on which the mother appeared Friday and Monday.
Also on Monday came the prospect that the Rev. Al Sharpton would be coming to town. The famous New York crusader and one-time presidential candidate is intrigued and considering weighing in on the episode, his staff said.
"Instantly he felt that it smelled bad, but he wants to research it first," said his spokeswoman Rachel Nordlinger. "It could be a case of police brutality or a case of her civil rights being violated."
Wilcox had no further information on Akins' move to pull the girl out of school. She was handcuffed at Fairmount Park Elementary on March 14 and transferred to another public school after the incident.
Wilcox said he found out about her leaving the system when he asked his staff Monday how she was doing in the new school.
A call to Akins' cell phone went unreturned Monday night.
Pinellas County records show that a St. Petersburg apartment complex where she lived moved to evict her on March 31, about two weeks after the handcuffing that put her daughter's face on TV screens across he world.
Wilcox said the girl had been out of school since Thursday.
John Trevena, who had been serving as the attorney for Akins, said he learned from an executive producer at A Current Affair that the girl and her mother traveled to New York City over the weekend, where they stayed at the show's expense.
The case of the handcuffed little girl was the top story on the tabloid program Monday night, with images of the girl smelling a flower and running through a park laughing.
The show interviewed a child psychologist who said the handcuffing might be racially motivated. A Current Affair also said the girl "had to flee her home to escape the media."
The show blamed Trevena's release of the video to major media outlets last week, including the St. Petersburg Times . The lawyer said a producer from the show "raged" at him last Friday, saying the release of the video violated an exclusive agreement between Akins and A Current Affair.
Trevena said he had been unaware of any agreement.
The show made no mention of its part in the media frenzy that has followed the video.
A Current Affair clearly communicated it had every intention of running the videotape, Trevena said. He also said the show interviewed Akins and her daughter only days after the handcuffing incident.
On Friday, a few hours after the video began screaming across the world, the show announced to the media that it had an exclusive.
It sent out a news release titled: "Five-year-old African American girl handcuffed by three police officers. A Current Affair gets first national look at incident on tape."
The program Monday evening did not disclose on air how much it had paid Akins for the story. When asked what the sum was Monday afternoon, a spokeswoman for the show laughed at the question. She said there would be no comment on the story.
Trevena called the program's actions "highly unethical and possibly illegal." He said he was concerned that his client was in New York discussing the case with another party without legal advice.
The videotape shows the girl defying an assistant principal and another school staff member as she tore items off walls and swung at the educators.
Later, it shows the girl in the assistant principal's office tearing items off a bulletin board, climbing on a table and swinging at the assistant principal numerous times.
The video ends after about 28 minutes with the girl crying as three St. Petersburg police officers place her in handcuffs.
The girl had a history of problems at the school, though the full extent is not known because student records are not public.
District officials have discussed an incident several weeks before the handcuffing in which a city police officer was called to the school because of a behavior problem with the girl. The officer said something to her about the possibility of being handcuffed if her behavior continued.
Akins later objected to that conversation, part of an ongoing feud with the school over her daughter's treatment.
District officials say the video started as an exercise by the girl's teacher to improve her craft in the classroom. But they acknowledge that the girl's history may have played a part in the decision to keep the camera rolling that day.
Though city police are being harshly criticized for their role in the incident, the department declined Wednesday to elaborate on the rationale for the handcuffing, citing a pending investigation.
Police spokesman Bill Proffitt said the department stood by a statement made in mid March, which was that department policy allows the handcuffing of minors in certain situations.
How did an incident that received mild attention in March blossom into a worldwide phenomenon five weeks later?
The video, said Matthew Felling, media director at The Center for Media and Public Affairs in Washington, D.C.
"It's not necessarily about the little girl, it's about the visceral nature of it," he said. "Is it compelling? Yes. Is it emotional porn? Yes. Is it internationally relevant news? No."
He said too many media outlets had been airing only part of the video, which is about 28 minutes long.
"This story is driven by 10 seconds of footage - two seconds of the tantrum and eight seconds of handcuffing," he said. "Completely taken out of context, but that is the media's way."
Or Oprah?
A wooden paddle has more sense than this girls mother.
If she is at the point where she is a danger to herself, then she is a danger to others.
So calling the police, and what the police did, was justified.
"My Goodness, I just realized that I am guilty of writing Ja'eisha off when it is not my right to. I think we should all pray for Ja'eisha and her mom and her situation instead of dogging her out. I feel rall awful after reading what people keep saying she is going to be and do in the future. We don't have a right. And as for bad kids, we can all watch on "Nanny 911" little white kids, with pretty white names acting just as badly as Ja'eisha. ...... I'm out!"
Some may be making this a black-white issue, but I'm not one of them. I'm looking at this from a societal view - child with self-absorbed, (appearingly)unmarried mother and an absent father... a child being taught she can act anyway she wants and say anything she wants - all the while being practically told she is a VICTIM. So, here's a child with no control over her life much less her mouth and fists. I'm angry with the "parents" first and foremost. And sad for Ja'eisha, I wish for her nothing but success but fear she is going to get a whole lot less out of her life thanks to the "adults" in her life. Ja'eisha is being let down every step of the way, IMHO.
The kid was out of control and for the safety of the other children and adults, she needed to be restrained. I suggest that the mother is probably a welfare mother, with not interest in the little life she carelessly brought into the world. This kid is her monthly meal ticket. I feel sorry for the kid actually, she hasn't got a chance in the world, unless some good disipline is used and very effectively!
Not just also in Florida, also in Pinellas County.
I wonder how the local police in Pinellas County like being inforcers for school principals who are too cowardly to take down a kindergartener and judges who want to murder disabled folks instead of proper law enforcement officers.
I know. And add to that the media. No sympathetic characters here!
You have a point. The second I read that, an image of my nephew popped into my head. The most headstrong and thrill-seeking of five children, he was the biggest challenge by far and required a LOT more corporal punishment (but he was never beaten, so far as I know). He's about 30 now and just finishing up an LLM in tax law, but there were times when his parents despaired wondering if they would get him to the age of 12 alive and in one piece.
I think Tiger Woods' name has probably helped in golf, but I note that he is not know for his college degree or his success in the business world independent of his golfing prowess and fame. I do recall his attempts at "segregating" himself from the black community by referring to himself as "Cablanasian." My point all along is NOT that these kids are less able than others, only that their names create obstacles to their success, that must be overcome. I hope Ja'eisha succeeds. It benefits all of us when any of us succeeds. But if anyone thinks that seeing that name at the top of a resume will help in that success, I have to disagree.
She needed physical restraint by a parent but her mother would not come (who knows where her father is ?). This is the only legal alternative left in public schools that do not allow corporal punishment. She needed a good spanking followed by parental love.
"........prospect that the Rev. Al Sharpton would be coming to town. The famous infamous New York crusader race-baiting huckster who's views are given credence by the hyperventilating MSM and one-time presidential candidate who is under investigation for abuse of Federal election laws but will probably be let off because to NOT do so would be Racial Discrimination is intrigued and considering weighing in on the episode, his staff posse said......"
I saw the attorney on TV yesterday morning.
If he wins the case, he can buy another chin.
Little kids aren't necessarily stupid. The fact that she calmed down in the face of overwhelming force tells you nothing about what she would do the minute the cops left or the next day.
I'd bet that had she NOT been cuffed, the next day she would have tried to see if she could make them call the cops again.
The kid and, especially, the kids parent(s) took advantage of the current perverse system to limit less dramatic options. In essence, they demanding overwhleming force, and they got what they demanded. Next they tried to respond with the overwhelming force of public opinion and a perverted judiciary.
This is war -- war on YOUR children.
Do you think Oprah's name helped her? I understand that her name was actually intended to be the biblical name Orpah, but was messed up somehow on her birth certificate. I suspect that many of these "ethnic" names are from similar results. Surely no one intended to name her child Anfernee or Ant'won. She had to have been shooting for Anthony and Antoine. And we have all heard the jokes about Lemongelo and Orangelo, etc. etc.
"But I've found that I need Mr. Spanky as a last resort. It depends on the child."
I agree with you. If I had to spank one of my children, I called the smack on their rump my "exclamation mark". The smack wasn't the message, but it drove my point home - and it worked the few times I needed to use it. I believe that if you take the lessons of "cause and effect" away from a child, you can ruin them for life.
Well, I will tell you that my wife is a middle school teacher and their school has very few problems with kids. The principal does NOT tolerate disrespect and the parents are very involved. Maybe it is a Southern thing or maybe because most of the kids come from good homes. I don't know, but I DO know they don't have discipline problems.
Now, they also are the highest performing middle school in the county and one of the top 5 in the state. The Elementary school where my boys go is the top perfoming school in the county and is also in the top 5 in the state. It is the main school that feeds into my wife's middle school. All but one of the Elementary schools feeding into her school are overwhelmingly white and have a high middle class makeup, which I am sure makes a big difference.
With that said, o the school board decided to change the districts 2 years ago to have more inner city kids go to the county schools, so they put one of the worst crime-ridden housing projects into my wife's district. They had a lot of gang-bangers come in thinking they would rule the roost. The principal cracked heads and the students are now walking the straight and narrow.
Discipline is the key. Just last week a BED kid (IE: shouldn't be in public schools in the first place) hit his handler and threatened an assistant principal. He was carted off by the school resource officer in handcuffs and will not return..... EVER! They my wife's class is right in front of the front parking lot, so he went right by her window. She made all of her kids stop working and look. She told them "This is what happens to you when you misbehave in this school". Not one kid so much as talked out of turn the rest of the day!
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." - Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
Meaning: A suggestion that a thing is what it is, not what it is called.
It of course has nothing to do with the color of your skin, it has to do with the contents of your heart, as Martin Luther King, Jr. correctly envisioned it should be. How many Korean, Vietnamese, Indian, and Pakistani people have come to America, worked 80-hour work weeks driving a cab or running a convenience story because they are so grateful to be out of the pest-hole they came from and be living in the greatest nation on earth, where their own hard work pays off in cold, hard cash? Look at the children of these immigrants, who regularly score higher than some snobby WASP kids, or than some "angry young blacks" who won't learn to speak proper English or how to respect customers because hey, they spend the money?
Even today, if you work at making your kids different from everybody else, they are going to be at a disadvantage when they stand in front of a prospective boss. Those who want to fit in will. Those who complain that "the Man is always ignoring me" will find it to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Here's my earlier comment that will get ME labeled as a racist:
" Was black slavery bad? You bet! And without it, many, many people who live in the richest nation on earth would today be starving in backwards, third-world countries run by tribal warlords who take the UN food and don't give their own kinsmen a bite.Was Hebrew slavery bad? You bet! Was black-on-black tribal slavery in Africa bad, selling their kinsmen to white men? You bet! And after all the recriminations, after all the race-bating, after all the whining, were is slavery still happening? The Sudan, you say? And why aren't Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton and the others outraged about this? Follow the Benjamins, because it's not about race, it's about money."
I have to show up to work on time, work hard, please my superiors, show initiative, speak clear English, and do a good job pleasing the various people who are my bosses; if I fail in this, I am out the door. If they fire somebody else for falling short on the same criterion, they might be sued for being "racist." Sigh.
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