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Schools are prisons
Perhaps some of you have seen this story on BoingBoing already: A 5-year-old boy with probable ADHD was handcuffed and charged with battery on an officer after he threw a temper tantrum in class. The officer touched him non-consensually (we teachers, except in unusual circumstances to protect a child or when working with developmentally delayed children, are not generally advised or permitted to make any sort of physical contact with children. Though I sometimes fist-bump or high-five them because that cannot possibly be mistaken for anything other than a fist-bump or high-five.). According to the fascist pig who arrested this little boy, the child only reacted violently after the officer put a hand on him.
You get no internet points for guessing the skin colour of the victim.
Lest you think that this is an unusual occurrence, I must point out that the militarization of public schools is a growing phenomenon. In New York City, the NYPD had 5,055 school safety agents (SSAs) and 191 armed police officers in public schools, comprising the fifth largest police force in the U.S., outnumbering the police forces of Washington D.C., Detroit, Boston or Las Vegas.
Here in Toronto, the TDSB is for some reason hazy about how many armed men with guns are patrolling its hallways. In 2009-10, there were 36, representing around 35% of secondary schools. Cops use this access to students to build criminal cases. I have heard anecdotal reports that students have been charged when, before there was a police presence in schools, they would simply have been disciplined by the school's administration.
You know, someone has to fill those superjails that Harper is building.
As for the little boy whose rights were so egregiously violated, I will be stunned if either the school or the cop faces any sort of repercussions. The BoingBoing commentariat mainly had their heads on straight, but if you go to the original article, you will see that many people in America welcome fascism and don't believe that five is too young to give 'em the chair.
You get no internet points for guessing the skin colour of the victim.
Lest you think that this is an unusual occurrence, I must point out that the militarization of public schools is a growing phenomenon. In New York City, the NYPD had 5,055 school safety agents (SSAs) and 191 armed police officers in public schools, comprising the fifth largest police force in the U.S., outnumbering the police forces of Washington D.C., Detroit, Boston or Las Vegas.
Here in Toronto, the TDSB is for some reason hazy about how many armed men with guns are patrolling its hallways. In 2009-10, there were 36, representing around 35% of secondary schools. Cops use this access to students to build criminal cases. I have heard anecdotal reports that students have been charged when, before there was a police presence in schools, they would simply have been disciplined by the school's administration.
You know, someone has to fill those superjails that Harper is building.
As for the little boy whose rights were so egregiously violated, I will be stunned if either the school or the cop faces any sort of repercussions. The BoingBoing commentariat mainly had their heads on straight, but if you go to the original article, you will see that many people in America welcome fascism and don't believe that five is too young to give 'em the chair.
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I mean, I am not fond of young children, particularly young children who are having temper tantrums. (Though presumably a kindergarten teacher should have developed some tolerance. If I couldn't handle sullen adolescents, I wouldn't have become a high school teacher.) But I can't imagine a rational adult deciding that the best way to deal with a child having a temper tantrum is to assault him, handcuff him, and then charge him with a criminal offense. That is just so outside the boundaries of normal adult behaviour that I can't wrap my brain around it at all.
I mean, a 5-year-old. Really?
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I'd guess that the officer doesn't have kids, or much contact with young kids. But then why the fuck was he working in a school?
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Im thinking no matter how fucked up something is, if the cops can get away with it, they will.
" well theres no law SAYING i cant handcuff a 5 year old."
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Then again, given the posts I make when drunk, it's probably not a good idea anyway.
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I went to a hippie school until I was 8, so any tantrums I had were...well, I don't remember having tantrums because school was laid back and chill and we had drum circles.
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If you hit someone without their consent, it is assault. Unless it is a child, in which case you're totally allowed to do that. This always seemed backwards to me, but hey, I'm not a parent.
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the
HELL
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And your NYCLU link made me think of these lyrics by RATM:
Ain't it funny how the factory doors close
Round the time that the school doors close
Round the time that the doors of the jail cells
Open up to greet you like the reaper
(and isn't that taken from like some propaganda or social theorist or something? about the school and factories being tied into each others as institutions)
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Well, they are. I don't think it's so much as one social theorist as all of them.
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Bloomberg says "I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world."
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D-:
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I read of a case where a 4- or 5-year-old was charged (and I believe convicted) for pulling a chair away as a grown-up was sitting down.
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I thought New Yorkers were supposed to be smart and urbane. Why'd they elect a douchebag like that?
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Also, WTF was this school thinking sending a police officer in to scare a kindergartner??
If this were my kid there would be some fucking heads rolling.
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Of course, I think schools are prisons anyway, except that you are allowed out of them at the end of the day. Day-prisons.
But this is sick. I am scared we will become a police state too soon. They are training police here to use rubber bullets on rioters. Which means they'll be used on protesters, of course.
I would not like to live somewhere where police are allowed to carry guns. I think it is disgusting and shows what people think of normal citizens, that they should be forced to comply by the threat of violence. UGH.
Poor child.
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I am so worried about a situation like that happening at our school. We get a different cop every year, and I don't trust any of them. I don't think armed men should be allowed around children.
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I once knew a cop (yeah, can you believe it?) who walked right into a hold-up at a coffee shop where the guy had a gun. She never even considered drawing her weapon. She just talked him out of it. You never hear of that happening anymore.
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I am so worried about a situation like that happening at our school. We get a different cop every year, and I don't trust any of them. I don't think armed men should be allowed around children.
I don't think I would be worried, but I agree there's no need for police in schools and they shouldn't be there.
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That's absurd, disturbing, and so very far outside reasonable adult behaviour. And yet, the only thing that surprises me is that the kid didn't get pepper sprayed.
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