Posted on 01/25/2008 5:28:47 AM PST by fweingart
A 5-year-old boy was handcuffed and hauled off to a psych ward for misbehaving in kindergarten - but the tot's parents say NYPD school safety agents are the ones who need their heads examined.
"He's 5 years old. He was scared to death," Dennis Rivera's mother, Jasmina Vasquez, told the Daily News. "You cannot imagine what it's done to him."
Dennis - who suffers from speech problems, asthma and attention deficit disorder - never went back to class at Public School 81 in Queens after the traumatic incident.
His mom and a school source said Dennis threw a tantrum inside the Ridgewood school at 11 a.m. on Jan. 17.
Dennis was taken to the principal's office, where he apparently knocked items off a desk.
Rather than calling the boy's parents, a school safety agent cuffed the boy's small hands behind his back using metal restraints, the school source said.
The agent and school officials then called an ambulance to take the tot to Elmhurst Hospital Center for a mental evaluation.
Vasquez was stunned when a guidance counselor called her at work to say her son was being taken to the psych ward.
Vasquez rushed to the school from her job as a patient representative at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. On the way, she called Dennis' baby-sitter, who was closer to PS 81, and asked her to hurry over to the school.
When baby-sitter Sandy Ortiz arrived, Dennis was still handcuffed, she said. School safety agents also were holding his elbows even though the boy was calm, Ortiz said. Dennis is about 4-feet-3 and weighs 68 pounds.
"I hugged him. I said, 'OK, release the cuffs, I'm taking him,'" she recalled. "They told me, 'No, Miss. You're not taking him anywhere.'"
Ortiz routinely picks up Dennis from class. She said she's never seen him behave in a way that would require him to be restrained.
"I was so upset. There's no reason to handcuff a baby of 5 years old, traumatize him that way," she said.
The handcuffs were removed before Dennis was walked out of the school and driven by ambulance to Elmhurst Hospital Center. He was evaluated at the hospital and released about four hours later, his mom said.
School sources said Dennis had punched an assistant principal the day before he acted out in class. The sources also said he broke glass in an office door a week earlier.
A spokeswoman for the city Education Department declined to comment on why school safety agents needed to handcuff Dennis, saying the incident was under investigation.
The NYPD, which oversees school safety agents, also declined to discuss specifics. Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said, "We hope common sense would prevail and we are looking at what happened."
Vasquez immediately withdrew Dennis from PS 81 and enrolled him in a private school, Grand Street Settlement.
"I asked him, 'Do you want to go back to that school?' He broke down in tears," Vasquez said. "He said, 'I don't want to go! I don't want to go!'"
My kids went to public schools and I had my share of problems...and they eventually learned that I was right, but they made the whole situation an adversarial one. The school administration are not the parent.
They attempted to commit a five year old. There are alternate schools for children with behavioral problems with a better adult child ratio. With my history, I can easily believe the school administration lost it in a power struggle with the mom. The mom may well be resisting the idea that her son was having problems.........but to be unable to deal with a five year old having a temper tantrum is outrageous. I cannot fathom a kindergartner being handcuffed and taken away by the men in little white coats to the funny farm. It is unreal.
As to calling this violent....this is not a 200lb middleschooler.....this is a kindergartener.
I wondered how quickly the comments would get stupid on this thread. It never occurred to me that it might be post #1.
If the conditions did not fit under the prior approval [...]
I'd bet BIG money that there is not a piece of glass anywhere in that school that is three quarters of an inch thick, or even a half inch thick.
The above definition of violence plainly says that the child's actions of breaking a door glass and knocking stuff off of the principal's desk were violence because those actions resulted in damage. Obviously, one doesn't need to be a 200 pounder to be violent.
The kid is supposedly 5 years old, even though he is as tall and heavy as a ten year old.
Agreed. It's also encouraging that the mother pulled the kid from public school. If only that could be done with 100%, we might be in good shape someday!
My one nephew was a 12lb 13oz preemie.......he was big for his age all through school and is a very tall young man now. He looked years older than he should and lots of people expected lots more of him not realizing his real age. It happens.
The handcuffs are one issue.
A separate issue is that they figured he was safe enough to remove the handcuffs, but nonetheless refused to release him and insisted on taking him to the psych ward.
That’s a separate issue.
It’s funny to note that so many FReepers can be rightfully cautious about the government intrusion into gun rights...yet at the same time, trust them on other aspects. At what point do you say: “Heck, no...it’s the parents’ kid, not the government’s.”
I would think he woulda done all his talking with his fists. You handcuff my child for anything short of a crime, I dont give a shit what he did, and I'll beat your ass.
Violence and five year olds do not go together. You and I will not agree.......you talk about this child as if he is a criminal. Chill.
He punched an assistant principal and destroyed property?
He’s lucky he wasn’t tazed.
Yes, but not always. To say that children’s illness or condition is always the parents’ fault is ridiculous.
Agreed...and their actions didn’t do so.
At least the kid has learned that you can’t trust the school administration and they don’t really have your best interests in mind. Sounds like it helped to bond the family more, once the kid got out of the State’s hands.
They should just have called Mommy and let the spoiled brat destroy everything in sight whil they waited for her, I suppose.
1. His mom and a school source said Dennis threw a tantrum inside the Ridgewood school at 11 a.m. on Jan. 17.
2. Dennis was taken to the principal's office, where he apparently knocked items off a desk.
3. School sources said Dennis had punched an assistant principal the day before he acted out in class.
4, The sources also said he broke glass in an office door a week earlier.
Vasquez immediately withdrew Dennis from PS 81 and enrolled him in a private school, Grand Street Settlement.
Does that give you any idea why the little nipper is hard to handle?
Now, I can't comment on this particular child, but I will say that there are kids with special needs that should not be in standard schools. Schools are not capable of handling some of these kids with physical, mental, and/or behavioral problems. The mismatch between student and school can sometimes lead to egregious mishandling of difficult situations. It's bad for everyone.
Well, I can -- what the little snot needs is a paddle applied to his butt regularly, by an expert.
Agreed. That part seemed a bit over the top ... unless (as there usually is) there's more to this story.
At what point do you say: “Heck, no...it’s the parents’ kid, not the government’s.”
It's a grey area, actually. Parents' rights over their kids aren't absolute: there may comes a point where one has to choose between the kid's well-being, and the right of the parents to raise the kid as they see fit. (I use the plural parents for purely grammatical convenience.)
A neighbor of mine is a teacher in a school with a high proportion of lower-class kids. She's a fine lady and a good teacher: smart and dedicated.
Because of her educational and career background, many of her kids have behavioral difficulties not unlike those described in this article. Some of her students' parents are truly awful ... to the point where you begin to wonder if it's not better for the kid to for the gov't to take them away and put 'em someplace safe.
And it should be handled in a workable way -- warn his butt good, each and every time. Do that and the number of times will markedly decrease in a hurry.
BINGO!
Even those with the different types have trouble understanding the others. For example, I know a boss who was classic hyperactive ADHD unable to understand why his advice wouldn't work for his "Primarily Inattentive" ADHD (what should be called "ADD") employee.
Even the official terminology is ridiculous, with it all being called "ADHD"...even if there's no hyperactivity. That yields us "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder without Hyperactivity."
It's also a shame that the general public doesn't realize that brain scans reveal physiologic differences between ADHD and normal folks. The different flavors of ADHD are real conditions....the problem is, as you said, overuse of the term.
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