Or, just put them in the cornfield.
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
I attended public school. My principal had my parents' permission to tan my hide. He had most parents' permision. I wouldn't have been able to sit for a month-- from whippings before and after I left school.
Strangly enough, there were very few discipline problems in that school.
I got spanked with a big leather belt by the principal of my Jr. High for shooting a pea shooter (do they still have those) with 1 or 2 other guys. The school didn't tell my parents and I didn't either. I also didn't shoot any more peas in school. Or "spitwads". If you were really bad, you shot paperclips. Those really hurt.
It's a wonder I (and many of my friends) survived our childhood and youth. Boy, did we do some stupid things. I think I turned out fairly OK despite it all.
Many years ago, when I was young, stupid, and a union member (not mutually exclusive), I learned about what the company called "malicious obedience". In other words, the union member obeyed his supervisor's work instructions to the letter, in a way that was malicious (he knew that the imprecise and assumptive wording the supervisor used would lead to a Bad Thing, but he obeyed the supervisor's words precisely anyway.)
In that case, the company filed a union grievance against the employee. I'd never heard of that happening before.
Anyway, I said all that to say this: It seems to me that the police are obeying the lawyers' instructions to the letter, and the result is the malicious destruction of school property. Malicious obedience . . . and it's the fault of the blood-sucking attorneys, IMO. (I'm not really blaming the police, you see.)
Picking her up that way might be as dangerous to the picker as picking up an angry cat that hadn't been declawed.
How about a liberal application of pepper spray?Or just throw a net over the little monster.Got to be careful though-sometimes these brats charge when cornered.
I watched a video of the "riot" situation at the High School in Houston the other day. The parents had gotten involved. One of the mothers was literally jumping up and down, screaming and flinging her arms around... like a nutcase. The other "mothers" tried to calm her... but had to back off. It reminded me of the 5 yr old kid that got handcuffed. Sigh. At least we know where this is coming from, eh?
When I was in the third grade, somewhere around 1954, "old lady" Spence would paddle my butt with great regularity.
A few years ago the small town where I went to school had a 100th B/day party for her and all her former students who could were asked to attend.
I considered going because I figured that at 100 years old I could probably take her now.
I didn't go though.
Correct!!! That needs to be on a bumper sticker or T-shirt, or even a national motto........or something!
the little twit simply need her butt whipped good!
The officer should have told the girl to go see if the tv still worked after she knocked it off the stand.
So what would they have done if the father refused to restrain her?
Let her destroy the whole school?
The law does not mandate that the child attend an after-school program, which is where she was when the tantrum occurred. She seems to have been there for the convenience of the parents.
Most states provide exceptions from the mandatory attendance statutes for severe illness or handicaps. Most schools and states did not accept severely handicapped or mentally ill students until the courts forced them to do so.
There are a number of students for whom the school is essentially a very expensive day care system.
But one certainty is that the quality of teachers has tanked....fewer students per teacher....more money for teachers...But a teacher can't teach math, chemistry, or physics if she or he is incompetent in them.
The NEA's prime goal is to enrich the union leadership via as many dues paying members as possible and in the "trade" with the rank and file, get more benefits for these "teachers".....But the NEA only gives lip service to the children. The NEA is not interested in any way, shape, or form in assuring the teachers knows their craft.....hence incompetent instructors and the production of ill equipped children for the modern world.
The discipline issue is more the fault of a multitude of terriblely destructive court rulings, busing, and eager lawyers willing to sue anyone interfering with these rulings...Much of this was directed by the ACLU which in particular have been successful in dismanteling traditional American public schooling...which 50-60 years ago was the envy of the world!
Have a grand day.
That's true, and those are the fields in which the salary-gap is most pronounced.
A teacher also can't teach if the "little darlings" won't behave and discipline can't be enforced. Personally, I'd tend to blame the ACLU and the courts more than the NEA, but there is plenty of blame to be shared.
We also have the lawsuit-happy parents who have bought into the pop psychology that discipline will harm a child's self esteem and cause other irreparable psychological damage.
The child is a Democrat in the making.
ROFL! One of the best eps ever!
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