He's got good tetherball skills, you know.
Posted on 09/17/2005 2:30:08 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
ST. PETERSBURG - A girl, upset over a tetherball game, throws a tantrum during an afterschool program at Fairmount Park Elementary. She stomps on a table, tears things from the wall, pushes a television off a stand.
It's a strikingly familiar scene.
Six months ago, St. Petersburg police made international news by handcuffing a tempestuous Fairmount kindergartener as a video camera rolled.
Last week, police were called to the school again. This time, the officer stood and watched, waiting for the girl's father to arrive.
"He was totally powerless. What's he going to do? Grab her? Handcuff her?" Sgt. Phil Quandt, the officer's supervisor, said Friday. "It'll be like the 5-year-old all over again."
Quandt, also a union official, said new rules created in the outrage that followed the handcuffing have now left police afraid to act. "It needs to be vague enough where our officers, when faced with whatever threat, are able to adequately respond," he said.
The officer's hands-off approach to the Sept. 9 incident - which came to light on Friday - reflects a new policy not to use restraints unless the child is armed or considered violent. The officer acted properly, police spokesman Bill Proffitt said.
Quandt, however, thinks the officer should have felt free to prevent the girl from wrecking the room and perhaps hurting herself. But he understands the officer's reluctance.
The incident also raises fresh questions about who is responsible for the safety of children after class is over, exposing a gray area in the newly forged understanding between police and the school district.
The 8-year-old girl who acted up last week goes to Hamilton Disston School in Gulfport, for children who are severely emotionally disturbed or who have other disabilities such as speech or vision impairments. After school, she is bused to Fairmount for R'Club, a nonprofit learning program.
R'Club operates at Fairmount and more than two dozen other schools in Pinellas. Though it coordinates with the school district on curriculum, the program is independently run and financed.
The call to police last Friday came about 4:20 p.m. The girl got upset after playing tetherball, hit a boy, then kicked off her shoes and stormed out of school, said Art O'Hara, executive director of R'Club. A supervisor called St. Petersburg police, fearing for the girl's safety.
By the time Officer Michael Gattarello Jr. arrived, a club worker had coaxed the girl back to the school. When she saw the police car, O'Hara said, she got frightened and began terrorizing the room. About 60 other students were ushered outside.
The girl, O'Hara noted, was familiar with police since an officer returned her to school about three weeks ago after she ran away.
Gattarello, following the new guidelines, called a sergeant and asked that schools police be called to handle the situation. But those officers stop working at 4 p.m. on Fridays, as opposed to 10 p.m. on other weekdays.
"I continued to stand by while (the girl) tore up the area and awaited her parents' arrival," the officer wrote in a report.
With 19 officers to police the district's 50,000 elementary students, the school force is spread decidedly thin. Still, schools police Chief Tom Gavin said that is not a factor in Friday hours; rather, he said, there are no school programs at that time.
Since R'Club is an independent organization, would school police be responsible anyway?
"That's where the gray area is," said school district spokesman Ron Stone.
Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said his initial impression was that R'Club is responsible for handling such situations after school hours, but he added he wasn't sure about the details. He said the district is taking a look at its agreement with R'Club to see whether it covers this situation. He said he also wants to know more about the training level of R'Club employees.
When the district changed its procedures in the wake of the 5-year-old's handcuffing, a situation like this was not contemplated, Wilcox said. Under the change, district employees are not to call city police for a misbehaving child who is 9 years old or younger or who is in third grade or lower. The only exceptions are when safety is an issue, such as when a student has a weapon.
Police Chief Chuck Harmon was unavailable for comment Friday.
Wilcox said it could be argued that R'Club employees are agents of the district and subject to the same rules and procedures, but he did not know.
"This has given us a little pause," he said. "We're going to look at it real hard first thing Monday morning and see what we can learn.'
Noting that no one was hurt, he said of the incident, "I think it ended as well as it could have ended."
Alex Leary can be reached at 727 893-8472 or leary@sptimes.com
What an irresponsible and dangerous world we have created.
Thousands of years of childhoood discipline has been destroyed in a single generation.
I was recently told, by a mother in her thirties, she could no longer control her son. He is two years old....He is surely headed for a life of crime because 1) his parents are too busy making money and acquiring "stuff" to be proper parents and 2) his parents do not understand discipline IS love.
Not long ago, my wife and I made the mistake of meeting the couple and that small boy at a Mexican restaurant. The parents let the child run all over the restaurant and grab things on every unoccupied table and bring them back to ours. I was so embarrassed to be seen in the company of such irresponsible parents, I told my wife I'd never go anywhere with them again.
The inmates are truly in control of the asylum.
The New Orleans anarchy is only a small taste of our future.
Sounds like the kid was a little psycho to begin with. I sympathize with the folks advocating ten of the best, but in this case she shouldn't have been participating in the first place.
The need for both parents working and out of the home is part and parcel of the nanny state raising good little socialists. One begets the other. More social programs, more taxes, etc....
This is an amazing story for I attended Roser Park elementary school (no longer extant) in St. Pete FL in the early 60's. We had to line up in the cafeteria and march back to our classroom. The route led outside and through the playground, past the tetherball pole. I was near the end of the line with my friends, and to a man, we all grabbed that pole and swung around it, lifting our bodies parallel to the ground and making a few circuits around the mast. This seemingly innocent behavior was observed by one of the Goody-Two-Shoes near the front of the line who informed the teacher that we had deviated from proper 'Returning to Class' procedure. Five of us miscreant boys were remanded to the custody of the principal where, in turn, we were ushered into her office and throttled with her 1/2" thick Board of Discipline. Our butts were indeed glowing red from the experience, but the real fear was that our parents would find out. No cops, no lawyers, no hand wringing, just instant discipline.
This story just jogged a memory with me. St Petersburg, elementary school, discipline, tetherball...
Why didnt they call the ACLU? Surely they would have arrived quickly to subdue in a legal fashion, that sweet little girl who, by virtue of losing a ball game, was the victim of a terrible educational system?
>>Looks like there's no end to their problems<<
Homeschool.
I won't let my kids near these monsters.
We homeschooled. Back when we started (11 years ago), I don't think that the schools were having this degree of problems, but I know with each passing year, I'd hear more and more about problems in public schools.
Homeschooling is one decision we've never regretted, and the benefits (and I'm not just talking educationally) have been profound.
ping to #1
calling ted kennedy.......need another 20 billion for education!!!!
"If I'd acted like the kids in this article, my butt would have glowed in the dark by the time my parents were through with me."
Little girl, let me introduce you to my friend Mr. Belt.
He's got good tetherball skills, you know.
"The 8-year-old girl who acted up last week"
An emotionally disturbed kid, dumped off on the school system. I'd bet her mom can't control her either, but it's not her problem while the school has her.
The school can't control her, and the police are afraid to go near her.
Wonderful. Just wonderful.
What's this kid going to be like in 10 years?
You're right. I read too fast and popped off too soon about that one "omission".
A glass of ice water in the face works wonders and does no physical harm.
Either one would probably bring a successful assault suit, or some such, against the teacher and schools, in this day.
And what's the problem with a little physical punishment? Harm is a stretch. I'm not talking a bruising here, I'm talking a little butt-warming.
My hubby insisted that my little one go to half day Kindergaten this year. Along with that I decided that my older one could do "specials". We signed her up for Music and Gym.
Honestly, the Kindergarten class is not so bad. (of course it kills me that she is going over the alphabet for the third week while working on vowel blends at home) The Gym class was fine. THE MUSIC class!!!! Oh MY! The poor teacher did all she could do but the kids were awful. I walked up to the teacher at the end and stated that this class was the reason why I homeschooled.
She is an older lady and said, "I would too."
>>What's this kid going to be like in 10 years?<<
She'll be in an orange jump suit.
I believe that an adult should have picked up the girl wrapped their arms around her and sat her on his/her lap until Daddy arrived. Let her scream until then and from there on she's Daddy's problem.
But what do I know, I am just an old Grampa, who has 4 adult children and 12 grand children.
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