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 PETERSBURG - The mother of the 5-year-old girl who was handcuffed at school by police has withdrawn her daughter from Pinellas public schools and is moving out of state, superintendent Clayton Wilcox said Monday night.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."
Okay, I'm back. Checking the "black" box on an application isn't a help either, but there are many success stories and many more to come as people keep an open dialogue. I don't think Tiger was using that label in an attempt to segregate himself from the black community, but rather as a way to honor all of his ancestry. Our society is obessed to labels and the superficial. But hey, white people, your population is shrinking. (due to population growth issues and immigration) There may come a day in the U.S. when names like Buffy and Janet on a resume are a detriment instead of an advantage....
Shaquille O'Neal, Condoleeza Rice and Yo Yo Ma seem to have achieved quite well.....in spite of (or because) of their names.
It's what you do with your name that counts...
...make it count.
I don't disagree, but if you were offered a rose variety, would you prefer the variety called "Queen's Honor" or the one called "Horse Vomit" if they both looked and smelled the same???
I think "Buffy" already is!!!
Unless it's a job at a strip club!!
;-)
Good morning.
"Where's Dad?"
LOL!!! Oh, my sides hurt.
Michael Frazier
LoL, I'm stuck in the 80's
Check on back on the "mutant" child in 10 years. She'll be smoking crack, have an arrest record a mile long, and headed for the gurney and needle! None of my five daughters ever behaved that way, nor did I or my brothers. If they had, they would have needed a skin transplant where they sat down!
"It is a shame they couldn't have contacted the mother before the police arrived."
From what I read when the story first hit they did contact her at 2 something PM and she said she couldn't make it till after 3PM.
First, could I pleeeeease have two minutes in a private room with this child. Bet she wouldn't "act out" for me again.
As for the mother-it is obvious that she has created a monster that even she can't stand to be around. "I ain't gonna come git her till after 3:00", namely, until I HAVE to come get her at the regular dismissal time.
As to the transfer, it isn't always so easy to send a child to another school. (I pity the school that she would be tranferred to (pushed off on). Maybe mother was demanding a tranfer to a school that was full, or that didn't meet the needs of the child (like an advanced pilot school). Wouldn't surprise me at all if mother was taking advantage of the situation and trying to get her in a school that was the most sought after in the district (or something like that).
VERY FRUSTRATING SITUATION! I feel bad for any "well behaved" students who are actually in school to learn.
The situation has been building for years and has reached the point where no one is allowed to be in charge.
Sounds reasonable enough to me.
...but per your last post, please don't go and malign other positions because of race.....
If population growth is a problem, it certainly isn't just a white thing...
..it's an across the board thing, having murdered over 40 million of our babies in the womb, black, white, and all colors.
And FWIW, Buffy, Muffy, Cissy, River, Rainbow and Ectasy are surely already detriments on a job application.
You said: Okay, I'm back. Checking the "black" box on an application isn't a help either, but there are many success stories and many more to come as people keep an open dialogue.
I don't think we disagree, really. We celebrate those who overcome these hurdles. People like Martin Luther King and Jackie Robinson come to mind (note THEIR names). My children will have to overcome the fact that their dad is a lawyer (hey, I do bank representation, not criminal defense of personal injury work). I had to overcome the fact that my family growing up was pretty poor, my mother divorced when it was much less fashionable, etc. It would have been much easier had my background been different. My name happens to be a little odd, too (Bowen). My point is that some of these names create additional obstacles for children. The question of whether it is right or wrong is secondary. And, for the record, the name Buffy ain't gonna help a girl get into the board room, now or ever. She may get in, but it will be despite her name, not because of it. Someday I hope Kennedy carries the same stigma.
"I did think of Condoleeza, actually. Interestingly, her name DOES mean something, in Italian, I believe."
And it's still a very weird name.
Many of the names you're talking about (although not all) ALSO mean something, but they have an African origin (I have no idea whether the name in this case means something). They are real names -- or at least real words -- in Africa.
MINO
On the other hand, the teachers weren't allowed to touch the child, and she did ultimately start swinging and climbing on things. I don't know what they could have done but call the police, and I don't know what the police could have done but bind her. She was going to hurt herself, if nothing else.
And I'm suspicious of the mother's mothering, too, but she distinctly said she couldn't come until 3:15 because she didn't get off work until 3:00, and that washes with me. And, as I said up front, I was unimpressed with the child's tantrum until she was an hour or so in to it. Seemed like pretty ordinary sulky five-year-old behavior to me.
On the whole, I think I'm going to save my outrage for something else.
LOL
Unfortunately, after 50 or so years of churning out lawyers, the chances now are that your teacher's effective method would cost her her job and her school system moocho $$$.
Hey, what-her-name, the blonde gal, named her kid "Apple".
This is fruit-centric, and discriminates against honest vegetables!
Ru-Barb would have been better!
You said: Many of the names you're talking about (although not all) ALSO mean something, but they have an African origin (I have no idea whether the name in this case means something). They are real names -- or at least real words -- in Africa.
I doubt that most of these names have any African meaning. Several years ago I was visiting my wife at the pharmacy where she worked at the time, and as my wife was trying to verify a woman's daughter's name, an "ethnic" name, for the prescription she was filling, the mother enthusiastically regaled us with names she was able to "make up" for her and her friends' children. This, of course, is her right. And names shouldn't create obstacles to success, but you think my former student (I used to teach high school) John Dick didn't have problems in life, you are kidding yourself.
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