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.
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.
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