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 PETERSBURG - The mother of the 5-year-old girl who was handcuffed at school by police has withdrawn her daughter from Pinellas public schools and is moving out of state, superintendent Clayton Wilcox said Monday night.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."
She knew the cops had authority and that the school had none.
Who allowed this to happen?
A current affair got the mother's lawyer fired because he released the video ?
IOW the show was not concerned about reality, the show was going to show just the selct clips to edit the teacher in the worst possible light instead of the full showing that was actually shown.
This is the program the produced Bill O'Reily.
LIBERALS and lawyers.
The "Arts/Life" section of my local paper today has 3 main articles.
1) In re: the school shootings at Red Lake High School, why do kids stay silent when they know their peers are into dangerous things?
2) Youth Court for teens. Trial and jury by peers.
3) "Today's teens taking porn for granted"
"...Little terror! I remember being spanked on my butt for talking in Kindergarden! Racism my a**...."
The kid was alright as long as she was calling the shots. Look at her face when the cops arrive and start doing what they did. Complete change of behavior. Even at that age, she KNEW she couldn't pull a snow job on the LEO's. Best thing for her, IMHO. The teachers and assistant principal handled a bad situation in the proper manner. I saw nothing wrong with their methods at control. The other kids in the classroom must have been ushered out so the teacher(s) could handle this one discipline problem. Their learning was delayed because of one kid.
Let Tawana Brawley's former bloodsucking rep go down to Florida. he'll make a lot of noise but he'll get nowhere with it. Just like Brawley's case. He may get a lot of property destroyed because of his muckraking. He should be held accountable for that eventuality. Just another case in a long line of school problems. So sad.
Bingo !
Why did this story take over a month to be aired?
Wanna bet Inga is a single mom?
I can't speak for all situations that face black parents and students. But, there are times when black students who excel at school are picked on or called "white" which can be very hurtful. There is some weird kind of pressure that comes with being smart. As parents we really have to make sure that we stress the importance of education to our young people and make sure we talk about the pressure of having to fit in. It is a shame that when we have so many obstacles to overcome, that one of them would be our own mindset.
1 - 50
Here are the Top 50 baby names for the year 2003.
1) Jacob and Emily
2) Michael and Emma
3) Joshua and Madison
4) Matthew and Hannah
5) Andrew and Olivia
6) Joseph and Abigail
7) Ethan and Alexis
8) Daniel and Ashley
9) Christopher and Elizabeth
10) Anthony and Samantha
11) William and Isabella
12) Ryan and Sarah
13) Nicholas and Grace
14) David and Alyssa
15) Tyler and Lauren
16) Alexander and Kayla
17) John and Brianna
18) James and Jessica
19) Dylan and Taylor
20) Zachary and Sophia
21) Brandon and Anna
22) Jonathan and Victoria
23) Samuel and Natalie
24) Christian and Chloe
25) Benjamin and Sydney
26) Justin and Hailey
27) Nathan and Jasmine
28) Jose and Rachel
29) Logan and Morgan
30) Gabriel and Megan
31) Kevin and Jennifer
32) Noah and Kaitlyn
33) Austin and Julia
34) Caleb and Haley
35) Robert and Mia
36) Thomas and Katherine
37) Elijah and Destiny
38) Jordan and Alexandra
39) Aidan and Nicole
40) Cameron and Maria
41) Hunter and Ava
42) Jason and Savannah
43) Angel and Brooke
44) Connor and Ella
45) Evan and Allison
46) Jack and Mackenzie
47) Luke and Paige
48) Isaac and Stephanie
49) Aaron and Jordan
50) Isaiah and Kylie
his information is compiled each year by the Social Security Administration.
http://babyparenting.about.com/cs/gettingready/a/babynames.htm
Same here, a common name for our son that wasn't so common anymore...towards the bottom of the annual "Top 500 Baby Names".
LOL
I don't think so! The cops were probably tired of responding to problems with this particular child and they probably suggested that the next time they had to answer a call about her, they were going to attempt to change her behavior by trying something a little more drastic. Like I said before, it is a tough love issue. Obviously, this child was used to behaving like this and no drastic steps had ever been taken by her mother to stop the behavior.
Well, let's be brutally honest here. The last ten times or so that I heard the "N" word, about 9 of those times, it came out of the mouth of a person of color.
(True, Chris Rock makes up about 3 of those, but the point remains...)
As a matter of fact, it makes it all the more understandable why the 911 operator (TX?) jokingly asked the distraught mother if she wanted them to come and shoot her daughter.
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 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.
It sounds to me like another undisciplined brat who's too young to be thrown to the floor and swarmed. Handcuffing her sounds like the correct decision.
I've been screaming this for years. I had several girl-friends (not girlfriends) that were young teachers and they would tell me the horror stories. They really don't have ANY power at this point. This is partly the fault of the teachers unions and partly the fault of communities for going soft.
I think you can also see a sharp rise in the lack of discipline at home and at school and the need to medicate every other kid, it seems. It's ALL nothing that a little discipline wouldn't fix, pronto.
The beginning of my post is a quote. If the quote is true, then the mom asked the cops to cuff her.
Then, she wants to come along later and sue somebody for doing what she asked.
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