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 PETERSBURG - The mother of the 5-year-old girl who was handcuffed at school by police has withdrawn her daughter from Pinellas public schools and is moving out of state, superintendent Clayton Wilcox said Monday night.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."
Only in Florida, folks. Kinda guessed the state before I read the article. Must be something in the water down there that is making the people do crazy things.
AND "Inga" begat "Ja'eisha"......
Kind of has a ring to it, doesn't it??
A friend of mine had problems with her sons being disruptive in class. So she told them flat-out if they didn't stop clowning around, she would start taking them to school and sit in their class with them. They knew damn well she would do it, too. The shenanigans came to a screeching halt.
If a parent isn't going to allow the school to discipline a kid, then the parent better be available to do. Otherwise, kick that kid right out of school.
Results so far are:
NO, the punishment doesn't fit the crime. 57 %
Yes, maybe she'll be scared straight. 34 %
Undecided. 8 %
Sorry,
I didn't clarify,
I know it is biblical--- Right next to Esther, Salome' is one of my favorite characters.
I guess I was trying to point out that we used 'unique' names, not common ones :)
the police should have been called, but the girl should never have been put in handcuffs. can anyone tell me any of the adults were ever in reasonable fear of their safety from this child? there are other ways to handle a situation like that.
5 year old handcuffed and arrested at school
By:Mike Deeson
The suspect was handcuffed, had her legs restrained, put in a cruiser and placed under arrest. St. Pete Police Department Spokesman Bill Profit says it was not to teach the student a lesson.
Bill Profit: “We don’t arrest people to teach them a lesson. We arrest people if a crime occurred and the victim was responsible for that crime.”
The police report says she was out of control; she was responsible for numerous items thrown on the floors and broken; victims were kicked numerous times in the shins. However, the suspect is a 5 year old kindergarten student at Fairmount Elementary.
Bill Profit: “There is no minimum age for criminal culpability.”
While St Pete Police say the arrest was appropriate the State Attorney’s office disagrees and police had to drop charges.
Bill Profit: “They learned the state attorney wouldn't pursue charges under these circumstances with a five year old.”
Parents at the school are shocked
Erika Stephens: “My son is also five and I wouldn't want him getting arrested.”
And St. Petersburg police filled out two reports about the incident here at Fairmount Park. In the first the officer says after completing my investigation I attempted to council the student about the consequences of her actions, but he left out one important detail in his report, that he placed the five year old under arrest
Bill Profit: “To use the term cover up is not accurate here. She was indeed arrested and she was indeed released to her mom.”
Spokesman bill profit points to the second police report where it says the officer intended to write suspect was placed under arrest.
Bill Profit: “This is an extreme case for us obviously.”
And while police admit placing a five year old in handcuffs and restraints is an extreme case, they say it was reasonable action by the officers. The Five year old and her mother were not available for comment. The kindergarten student... received a three day suspension and will be back in class tomorrow. A spokesman for the school board says.. it is "un-fortunate this incident occurred. But sometimes police have to be called in to help school administrators. Mike Deeson, Tampa Bays 10 News.
Everyone's a comic these days! Didn't you notice it was a black child!
(If Bill Cosby can say it, I can too!)
I thought I had heard that they did tell her that she would be observed by DHS. It could have been another case but I thought it was this one.
By CURTIS KRUEGER • Photos by CHERIE DIEZ © St. Petersburg Times, published December 17, 2000
Time was, little kids who got in trouble got off with a stern scolding. Nowadays, children as young as 6 or 7 are carted off in handcuffs, locked up and saddled with permanent criminal records.
Trayvon McRae is 6 years old.
After throwing a tantrum in music class, and kicking and hitting a St. Petersburg police officer who was taking him home, this kindergartener was handcuffed and arrested on a charge of battery on a law enforcement officer. Both of his wrists fit neatly into a single cuff.
Mikey Rao was 8 when he got arrested.
He didn't want to go to the principal's office, so he ran out of his class and kicked and scratched a teacher's aide. He spent several hours in the Citrus County Jail.
Demetri Starks turned 9 last week.
One day this summer, when he was still 8, he swiped a neighbor's jar of change. Police stopped the 60-pound St. Petersburg boy wearing a T-shirt covered with monsters from the cartoon Digimon. They handcuffed him and sent him to a detention center where he stayed locked up for nine days. Grade school felons sound like anomalies or misprints. They're neither. Elementary school kids who once got a stern lecture from a cop or a store clerk now are regularly arrested on felony charges.
Six-year-olds in handcuffs are taken in police cars to assessment centers, where they often wait for hours. Kids as young as 7 spend the night in detention centers. Kids as young as 10 are sent away for a year or more.
And in a very few cases, children enter the justice system at even younger ages, such as a 5-year-old St. Petersburg boy charged this year with burglary; and incredibly, a preschool arson suspect who went through a pretrial diversion program in South Florida at age 3. More than 4,500 kids 11 and under were charged with crimes in Florida during the fiscal year that ended in June -- including 413 in Pinellas County, 372 in Hillsborough, 61 in Pasco, 23 in Citrus and 17 in Hernando -- and many were arrested more than once.
...click on the above url to read the rest.
I've got to assume the poor girl has no father at home, and that she is not the product of a loving marriage, but of a careless romp.
Kids without dads have a lot going against them.
I wonder what reaction she will have in any new school since she is now known all over the country. I do not know what I would do if she enrolled in a school I taught in. Her reputation is in shambles as well as her mother's.
We adopted our daughter when she was almost 4. She's 24 now. She threw the most amazing tantrums... for years. She's a lot better now. LOL Her daughter also throws them so I think that there may be a genetic factor since my two home grown sons never did. well, maybe one of them but that's another story. Anyway, I hold her. We learned about holding therapy when our daughter was 16, and with good therapists (there are some real wack jobs out there) did some holding therapy on her. She continued to act out for several more years but amazingly enough, she developed a sense of humor. Prior to the therapy, she didn't trust enough to laugh. I still think of that when she cracks a joke or laughs at someone elses which happens often and think that the $5,000 we spent on that therapy was some of the best money we have ever spent. Can you imagine not having a sense of humor?
In my city, the Damnable EPA forces us to use a thing called "E-Check" to verify that my tailpipe isn't kicking out too much gunk. I went to have my car checked out, and there was a sign: "Remember your attendence bonus!" Excuse me, you get paid extra just for showing up? That's the problem!
Exactly - and yet these "parents" just don't get it.
I guess parents who refuse to discipline their children have never read the Old Testament book of Proverbs:
Proverbs 29:15 - The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.
I (no I'm not a doctor) tend to agree. I have a child with severe ADHD and possible bipolar (my mother had/has it so they think he might too we aren't sure yet). This girls behavior although more severe reminded me of my son. I am a 'strict' parent that does on occasion use a spanking as punishment if the 'crime' warrants it so my son never got that bad but I could easily be persuaded that another child without proper medical treatment, counseling and disclipline would most definitley get this out of controll. SO it may not be ALL (although I must say mostly) the mother's fault.....there very well could be a medical reason for at least some of the child's behavior.
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